


Delrath

by Psycholian



Category: Felarya
Genre: Vore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-09 15:29:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4354355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psycholian/pseuds/Psycholian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A man named John finds himself in an exotic and dangerous jungle, and makes an unlikely friend. Will either survive, not only the physical hardships, but the emotional and ethical ones as well?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. John

John was pushed through and he felt himself falling.

For several dizzying moments he was completely at the whim of gravity, until he landed on a ground made of dirt with thud.

"Urrghh..." John groaned as he propped himself up from the fall. He quickly took stock of his environment. 

A forest. No, a jungle. Could have been much worse, it could have been somewhere volcanic that could have killed him instantly, or even deep underwater. It was quite lush, temperate, and the canopy was staggeringly high up, possibly 50 or 60 meters he estimated. The canopy was supported by the equally staggeringly large trees, reaching all the way up to the canopy and at least half a dozen meters thick. Unfamiliar and strange plants and brush surrounded him.

 _An untamed wilderness. Ok, I can handle that._ John picked himself up and started walking, simply to give himself an idea of the area. John seemed to be lucky, he had survival skills, he had been in wildernesses with no provisions or tools before, all things considered he was incredibly lucky.

In fact, this is was almost too easy. There was definitely some sort of catch. This world is much more dangerous than it is appears. But what could it be? Do environmental conditions change rapidly? Dangerous fauna? Dangerous Flora? He looked nervously at the plants around him and his head swam with the lethal possibilities.

He certainly felt much less secure than he had a moment ago. He couldn't relax, not even for a second. He was, first and foremost, in a completely alien environment.

He heard something rustle nearby, and saw a creature not far away. Only at meter tall that the shoulder it was a quadrupedal creature similar to an antelope. It munched away on a bush and seemed to mostly ignore his approach. He walked up to it without more than a disinterested glance from the creature.

 _Fearless little guy. I wonder, is he not used to being predated on? If not, it would seem to eliminate dangerous fauna as a possibly, but surely no ecosystem would be able to survive without something to keep their population in check._ The creature's lack of fear of him would certainly make hunting them easier, as he no doubt would need to eventually do, but he tried to keep his efforts focused on understanding his environment at the moment.

The creature suddenly tensed and then bolted out of sight. _So much for fearless_. After a moment though he felt what may have spooked the creature. A rhythmic thumping could be felt through the ground, getting closer. Footsteps, no doubt, of some gigantic creature. John hid behind a tree, and prepared to run.

Much to his surprise what stepped out of the cover of the forest was a woman. She had short blonde hair, was completely naked and 30 meters tall, but a woman nonetheless. Were they the indigenous species? A species of gigantic humans? In any case, he felt relieved to see another human and stepped out from behind the tree.

"Excuse me!" He called out, hoping they shared a language.

The woman's eyebrows shot up, "My, aren't you a brave one," she said, stepping closer.

"I don't wish to be a bother, but I was hoping you might be able to tell me where I am." 

He did not like the look she gave him, "You're in Felarya. Did you just arrive?"

Not that he really expected to, he was upset to not recognize the name. It was after all, unlikely he was sent anywhere he had heard of.

"Yes, I did. Do you have any sort of civilization? A village perhaps? I need somewhere to stay."

She reached down, and before he could avoid it, picked him up using fingers as thick as around as he was, "No village, but I think I have somewhere you can stay ...", John was getting worried now. He did not like being immobilized like this. Suddenly, she drew him close to her face and opened her mouth to him. _Oh. That explains a few things._

"Wait! Stop!" He yelled, but she did not seem to take heed. Words would not get him out of this one, and he thought quickly. She dangled him over her open mouth, directly above the dark drop to her gullet. As she let go, he grabbed back on to her fingers and swung off to the side, just missing her mouth and for the second time today he fell from a dizzying height.

He hit and fell off her shoulder, painfully, before her hand caught him as he fell, but she made the mistake of not gripping him entirely and he immediately lept off.

"Argh! You little-" She was annoyed now. He hit the ground, but filled with adrenaline he did not stop to give any possible injuries he may have sustained a moment of thought. She reached down to grab him, but he immediately ran between her legs and dashed to the trees, the only thing that would work as an obstacle to her movement. He was not as young as he used to be, but escaping compromising circumstances was something he had considerable experience with.

He ran between as many densely-packed together tress as he could and used low hanging branches to get higher and avoid her sight, but every time she appeared in the openings he was headed towards and was forced to abruptly change direction. He knew he could not outrun her and was only buying time, but he was running out of options. 

John then sprinted out into a small clearing, which would have been suicide given the woman's significantly larger stride were it not for the creature in the clearing. Looking like a gigantic rhino, with perhaps a longer neck and legs, it stood some 20 meters tall and he had no idea how it would react to either of them, but he did not truthfully give it much thought.

The creature was grazing on a bit of greenery on a tree, but looked at its visitors. It glanced momentarily at John, but as soon as it saw the giantess it roared terribly and brandished it's frighteningly long horn at her. John ran under the creature which had seemed to have lost any interest in him, and put the creature in between himself and the giantess.

The creature snarled at her as she pointed at him and spat, "You're lucky, you little human!" before retreating back into the forest. The creature resumed its meal and John fell to the ground, breathing heavily. He sat there for several minutes, being sure to stay near the creature, and he began to feel a dull ache over what he felt like was his whole body. He carefully prodded his ribs to determine if any were broken, but much to his relief none appeared to be. Nonetheless he had badly bruised his side and chest, and he knew it would be quite painful for several days.

He turned his thoughts from his health to the encounter he had just had. _Who was she? Was she the exception or the rule?_ The fact that she didn't hesitate to prey on another sentient being disturbed him. His escape was pure luck, and he could not rely on that again. He needed to redouble his efforts. He had unfortunately now lost all trust in any natives. 

He groaned as he got up. What should he do now? He looked over at the creature, which had almost entirely ignored his presence, still munching away at leaves. Spurred by curiosity more than intelligence he moved over to its face. The creature lazily looked over at him, sniffed him, and then continued eating. At least not all of the fauna was dangerous.

"You're a pretty crafty guy," a small voice somewhere near him said. John immediately tensed and backpedaled several steps away from where the voice came from. Looking, though, he could see nothing that would be the source of the voice.

"Sorry for the scare, " the voice said again. It was closer to the ground. He looked again and saw a very small moving creature on the ground. Against, his better judgment, he took several steps closer to the creature to examine it better.

It was a person, yet now instead of being gargantuan the being looked less than 10 centimeters tall. He wore simple clothes and had two strange, flat, furry appendages sticking out from his head that looked like a mouse's ears. He had a faintly amused and patient expression.

"First time in Felarya?" the mouse-man said. John recalled the same words from the giantess that had attempted to eat him.

"Who are you? What are you?" He demanded with suspicion.

But the mouse-man only chuckled lightly, "It's alright I won't hurt you. It's pretty obvious that you're new here. I'm Ujen. I'm a neera. I was just saying the way you got away from that giantess is pretty crafty."

"You saw?"

"We neeras are a stealthy bunch. When we want to be," he said with pride.

"So, is that ... common?"

"What? A human getting away from a giant predator? No, that's pretty rare."

John was very unsettled now. What he said had some pretty severe implications. 'Giant predator'. 

"Are all giant-sized beings predators?"

"All the ones I've heard of. They're pretty much your number one threat," This was definitely not good.

Ujen scoffed, "Don't look so glum about it. You guys aren't the only ones at threat from bigger creatures."

"Are there humans here?"

"Yup, nekos too. Like humans, but with ears and a tail. They have a taste for neeras too," Humans already have ears, he considered saying, but realized that these smaller creatures were also predated on by human-sized creatures. He realized that he could conceivably eat Ujen right now, and that he had taken a large risk by showing himself to John. He put that out of his mind, for now, saving it for if food became particularly scarce, as he was more useful for information, right now.

"Cities? Villages?"

"Dunno about cities. Nekos have a few villages in the forest," He made it a priority to find one of these villages. They would surely have ways of protecting themselves against giant predators. 

"I don't suppose you would know where any of these villages might be?"

"Not really. We try to stay away from nekos, for reasons that should be obvious."

"One last thing. Why are you telling me all this?" Ujen should conceivably consider him a threat rather than a friend.

"Like I said, it's not often a newcomer to Felarya survives his first meeting with a giant predator. Thought I might give you some tips."

Got back up from his kneeling position and surveyed the surrounding area. Nothing, aside from the large rhino-creature. He saw how quickly a giant predator could move though, and knew that sight alone might not be enough.

So it was a death-world after all. Not that it should have been surprising, but the jungle looked quite peaceful and idyllic otherwise. He knew all too well that looks could be deceiving. That something you might have known for your whole life could rear its ugly head at any time. And that trust, even given conservatively, can be betrayed.

Still, he would steel himself. John was not sure he could say he been through worse, but he had been through hell. And we would go through it again, no matter its appearance. He began walking, with no particular objective in mind, but a rolling stone gathers no moss. 

"... Uhh bye then ..." Ujen awkwardly said to John's retreating form.


	2. Amipha

It was midday in the felaryan jungle. Everywhere was a hum of life as all manner of creatures ranging from millimeters to decameters roamed and predated on each other. Closer to the 'decameters' portion of the range were giant nagas. A particularly voracious species which had no qualms with devouring with native felaryan elves and nekos, as well as the plentiful human travelers and hunters. Most of them, anyway.

One such creature was curled around one of Felarya's massive trees and quietly sobbing. At 26 meters, she was small for a naga, though still quite capable of swallowing anything human-sized whole. She was slender and had, what a human would consider, barely even B-cup breasts. She had wispy, shoulder-length pale blonde hair, golden eyes, and a round face. Her tail, some 80 meters long had golden scales, and a milky-white underside.

She was feeling miserable, and didn't want to go anywhere or do anything. Not unless an outside force compelled her.

"What's got you down?" A voice called to her from above.

"Ahh!" Startled she felt on her back, and looked up at where the voice came from. Up in the tree was a giant like herself, with a spider-like body beyond her waist and had pale skin and short, black hair looking at her with amusement.

"Sorry to startle you." She said with a smile.

"Y-you're a..." She stammered, still on the ground.

"A dridder? First time you've seen one?"

"Y-yes. I heard some of you.." She trailed off, still looking frightened at her.

The dridder did not quite understand, but then said, "Oh! You might have heard that some dridders eat other giant predators," the naga nodded her head fearfully.

"Well, that's true, but you don't have anything to fear from me, I prefer more ... bite-sized prey." She said with a mischievous smirk. She then climbed down from the tree and onto ground level and held out her hand to the naga still on the ground.

"My name's Kenea."

Still unsure of her new acquaintance she nervously took her hand and allowed herself to be pulled up.

"Uhh, Amipha." She replied in a small voice.

"That's a nice name. So why were you crying?" Kenea asked sympathetically. Ashamed at being seen in such an embarrassing state Amipha nervously fidgeted.

"N-no reason..., I mean I uh, don't really have a lot of friends."

"Aww, why's that?"

Her nervous fidgeting intensified, "Uhh, well ... "

"It doesn't matter," Kenea said triumphantly while throwing an arm around her, "I'll be your friend."

Amipha did not seem very reassured, "Uhh, t-thanks."

"So you seem pretty young. Are you just wandering, or have you staked a claim on this territory?" Kenea teased.

"N-no! Of course not, I don't want to step on any toes!"

"Haha, you're too easy. Don't worry it's alright."

"Well, I'm just wandering, I suppose."

"I tell you what, I'm getting a little hungry, how much do you know about hunting?"

Amipha paled. "U-uhh I-uh I'm n-not really the h-hunting type..."

"Nonsense, everyone has to learn how to hunt, here come with me." Kenea grabbed her hand and started to pull her away.

"Ahh, look a citroise tree! W-we don't need to hunt!"

"We can save that for if we have some room left." Kenea said, unperturbed. _Oh no here we go, again._ Amipha thought to herself, _Just get over it! You'll never make any friends if you don't make some sacrifices!_

"Now the first thing about hunting is to be quiet," She said, bringing her voice to a whisper, "You have to watch where you're stepping, or in your case sliding. You might be able to outrun a human, but you'll end up scattering a group and it'll be a lot harder to get them all."

Kenea and Amipha continued to stalk around the forest for some time, with Kenea taking the lead and Amipha nervously following from behind. As they hunted Kenea continued to give her hunting tips.

"Despite being small, humans, and some of the dumber nekos still leave tracks. Be sure to look out for any old campsites as well, they're a surefire sign that humans are in the area. Your senses will probably make hunting a lot easier for you."

The senses she referred to were possessed by nagas and other magical creatures and it allowed them to sense living creatures at quite a distance. And her sense had indeed felt something; two humans not too far ahead, but Amipha was not listening to Kenea, and was instead trying to calm her steadily rising heart rate and breathing.

"There!" Kenea pointed at an unremarkable patch of brush, "Do you see it?"

Amipha looked closer, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, "They've disturbed the brush, and stomped flat some of the vegetation." Kenea observed, but Amipha still did not see what she was talking about and Kenea started to follow the trail in the direction of the two humans.

After a short jaunt Kenea motioned for her to slow down or be careful or something Amipha wasn't really sure, but she tried to be quieter. Kenea peeked around a tree and then motioned for her to come over. Sure enough, two humans were brazenly standing in the middle of a small clearing.

Kenea whispered to her, "Did you want to ... ?" and pointed at the humans. Amipha vigorously shook her head. Kenea smiled mischievously.

"Alright, I'll save one for you. And relax, they taste great going down," This did not ease Amipha in the slightest. Kenea then nimbly and quietly climbed up the tree and into the canopy.

Amipha looked back at the humans, one woman, one man. They were both young, maybe mid-20s, and wearing light, silk clothing which was mostly white. They certainly did not appear to be from Felarya with their attire. The woman had shoulder length brown hair, and the man was bald, but Amipha could not make out any more details without getting closer. They appeared to be worried and in conversation, so Amipha became as still as possible and listened very carefully to make out their voices.

"I don't get it, what was that?" the woman said.

"I don't know, honey. I'm not sure where we are either, but I'm sure we'll find a way back soon."

Two more poor souls doubtlessly ensnared by Felarya's dimensional disturbances. 

"What if we try calling out? There has to be some civilization around here?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea, this jungle looks pretty wild, who knows what kind of creatures we could attract," They didn't even know that they had already done so. Amipha noticed her hands were shaking and her breathing was shallow.

"What should we do?"

"I-I don't know."

"Ugh, Mark, this was _not_ what I had in mind when I said wanted to travel."

"Well, you did say you wanted to go somewhere tropical ."

"But now we never be able to go back home ..." the woman said before a huge form fell on top of them, them both in her hands. Amipha nearly jumped out of her skin and stifled a yelp at her sudden appearance. Kenea lifted them up in front of her and eyed them eagerly.

"W-what are you doing!?" The man yelled.

Amipha knew what was going to happen next. Kenea opened her mouth, glistening with saliva, and brought the women closer to her face.

"Wait! No, stop! Don't eat me!" The woman screamed, staring with widened eyes at her throat. Kenea ignored her and placed her on her tongue, and sucked her entirely into her mouth.

"STOOO-" She screamed before being silenced by Kenea's lips. Moaning with pleasure, Kenea swished her around in her mouth, soaking in her flavor.

"Wait! Please no!" The man yelled frantically. After savoring her for another moment , she tilted her head back, and swallowed the woman. A squirming lump passed briefly down her esophagus before disappearing past her collarbones. 

"Ahh~, I saved one for you Ami-" Kenea looked around, but was surprised to not find her anywhere, "-pha?"

Amipha was, at that moment, sobbing into her hands and slithering away as fast as she could. _OH GOD! Oh my god! I can't believe it!_ Exhausted after going as fast as she could for several minutes she stopped and slumped against a tree. _I just watched a person die and all I could do was sit there and watch it! I could have saved her I could have done something! I'm just as bad as them for letting that happen. Why does this have to happen?!_ Amipha fell over on her side and hugged herself. _I just sat there and watched it happen. I should have never agreed to hunting with her! They came here on accident, it wasn't their fault! I can't let that happen again!_

She curled around the tree, and stayed there sobbing for an excruciating amount of time, the woman's screams echoing in her head. When her eyes had no more tears to cry and she had settled into a simmering depression, she picked herself up. The sun was starting to set. The sun which shined over a gruesome, terrible world. One which had seen fit to make someone like her a giant, man-eating naga. Feared, for good reason, for their voracious appetites. Almost every giant predator was this way. She never even heard of one which wasn't. By all accounts she was denying her own natural way of life. But she didn't care about "the natural order". She just didn't want to hear screams of terror during breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Her stomach grumbled, and with a pang of pain was reminded of the incident which had occurred. She looked around and saw she had gone near the citroise tree from earlier. She slithered over to it. It was massive, far taller than she was, similar to most of the trees here, and hanging from many of its branches were purple, peach-like fruits called citroises. They were delicious, though right now their taste was completely lost on her as she began plucking and eating several almost in a daze.

Any giant predator could eat them, they didn't need to eat humans. But no one seemed to listen. They didn't care. They just did what felt good. She felt she couldn't blame them for that, but there was no way she could understand their diet let alone make it her own. Yet, it was because of that that she felt that she would never be able to hold onto any lasting relationships. Everything seemed to end this way. She had tried talking to humans or nekos, but they always ran away from her. Not that she could blame them. 

So once again she found herself alone. She looked at the citroise tree, the fading sun shining on its lush green leaves. _You don't hurt anyone. You get everything you need from the sun, give us fruit, and ask for nothing in return._ Amipha wondered why everyone couldn't just be trees instead. _You'll be my friend,_ she thought to herself as she wrapped around the citroise tree and slept, putting today out of her mind.


	3. Meeting

Amipha had made up her mind. She would try to eat someone. Relations with other giant predators had certainly gone better than her attempted conversations with any humans or nekos, if only she could get over her distaste over eating them then perhaps she could make some friendships that wouldn't unsettle her all the time. 

The sun that Felarya had decided upon today was hanging high in the sky and left pillars of light from in between the jungle canopy. Countless varieties of ferns and plants in addition to the colossal trees grew everywhere. Aside from the trees of course, few of them cause Amipha any issue in movement being some 20 meters tall. She still couldn't decide if being born a giant naga was a blessing or a curse. Few other creatures in the forest could harm her, being the size she was, the only issue being that almost all other creatures her size predate on the smaller, often sentient, creatures.

Finding someone to eat to overcome her fear, however, was going to be an issue. Just the thought of doing the act was making her heart race with nervousness. She had never been a very good hunter, preferring the plants of Felarya by far, but her naga instincts did at least give her an edge.

She slid through the jungle undergrowth easily, constantly wondering if she had made the right decision and whether morality was more important than friends until she finally sensed what she was looking for.

Some distance away, farther than she could see or hear, she felt a human-sized creature moving through the forest. Her heart began to race anew. Alright, this is it, I can do this! She laid low on the ground to minimize her height and hopefully avoid being seen. Is this how you hunt? Ugh, no, this is silly. She stood back up and simply slithered forward as quietly as she could. When she sensed he was very close she carefully snuck a look around one of the huge trees that would hopefully obscure her from her prey.  
The man was wearing simple, but quite haggard clothes, nothing more than a thin shirt, a belt, trousers, and a pair of heavy boots. He appeared to be in his early 40s, so not a Felaryan native, and had unkempt, chin-length black hair with a thick stubble beard. He walked slowly, with purpose and determination showing on his almost hawk-like features. He had a rather intimidating presence and she began to doubt herself. What are you doing? You're twenty times bigger than he his! Just run over and shove him in your mouth he can't get away!　Despite starting to sweat profusely, she steeled herself. And then accidently broke a branch on the tree.

The man's head instantly swiveled on her and he bolted for the nearest cluster of underbrush.

"W-wait!" she blurted before starting after him. 

He ran into a copse of somewhat densely packed trees, but she was much faster than he was and followed him in shortly after him. She was almost on top of him, but due to her fixating on her ground-level prey she smacked her forehead into a particularly thick branch.

"Ugh!" Her head throbbed, but she needed to quickly pursue. Again, her senses picked up his trail, despite having lost any other indication as to where he was. She followed and caught up quickly, but noticed now that he wasn't moving. She couldn't rely on her sense anymore, they were too inaccurate this close. She looked around the various trees and brush around her. Nothing. What do I do now? I don't even know the first thing about hunting. Why am I doing this? M-maybe I can smell him. She stuck her nose out ridiculously and sniffed as hard as she could. Nothing but the forest she smelled every day. 

She began taking closer looks around her, as long as she could tell he was standing still it wouldn't matter if she took a long time. Moving bushes, behind branches she looked anywhere she could. Only her naga senses told her that anyone was here at all. Can our sense fail? Am I just tearing up this empty patch of forest? How long am I going to be here? Before giving up completely, she saw a knotted hole near the bottom of one of the trees, just small enough for a human to get into. She thrust her hand in and felt something that jerked suddenly at her touch. She grabbed him quickly and brought him out in front of her.

For several awkward moments she simply stood holding him in front of her. Her heart was running a mile a minute and was breathing quick and shallow breaths. The man stared at her with an alarmed facial expression that exacerbated its sharp contours. He looked at her like an angry father or teacher telling his student that she had missed 6 six days in a row and any more absences would be strictly disallowed and would result in immediate expulsion. 

"Don't eat me," he said in a halting and forceful manner.

He's just a person who doesn't want to be eaten like anyone else! Why did I think this was a good idea!? I have to get this over with quickly! She squeezed her eyes shut and shoved him into her mouth.

"DON-" he exclaimed before being enclosed fully in her mouth.

Now that he was in her mouth, she finally tasted him, and he tasted good! But his thrashing and struggling in her mouth was extremely distressing. She wanted it over with as soon as possible and wasted little time in swallowing him down, struggling all the way down her throat and into her stomach. It had been far from a pleasurable experience, but she now deigned to have as quickly out of her mind as possible. But it was impossible.

She could now feel him thrashing about in her stomach and the feeling was making her incredibly nauseous. Oh god, what have I done, I ate someone, and I can still feel them alive inside me! She put her hands to cool her incredibly hot face, but it made no difference. She felt like she couldn't breathe and was about to have a heart attack any second. Ugh, why did I think this was a good idea! There's a person burning and suffocating to death in my stomach! He didn't do anything wrong, why him!? I can't! I can't do this! When her churning insides became too much for her to handle, she doubled over and vomited on the forest floor. 

She quickly picked up the vomit-covered man and began wiping it off him with tears streaming down her face.

"Oh god! I'm sorry! I didn't- I don't even know why- I am so sorry!" she blubbered while holding him close to her chest. Wracked with sobbing she curled up on the forest floor. Being unable do to do much about it, the man decided to wait out her frantic apologies and crying. After she had quieted to small sniffles he spoke again.

"Put me down," he commanded.

Having almost forgotten she was still holding him she straightened up and quickly put him back on the ground.

He folded his arms and glared at her, "Do you plan to eat me again?"

He stared at her like a teacher telling his student that she had been expelled due to repeat absences and if she didn't immediately shapen up she would never amount to anything. She felt incredibly ashamed at herself and vigorously shook her head.

"No! No, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"Then I'll be leaving now," he turned and started walking away.

"W-wait! Please!" she reached after him again, but though better of it. Nonetheless he turned back to face her.

"Why?" he said as though he were demanding an answer rather than asking a question.

"Please! I don't have any friends! I'm so lonely, and humans and nekos just run away from me-"

"Well, maybe it's because they're afraid you're going to eat them! Like you just did me!" he yelled at her with a voice that caused her in cringe in fear of his wrath, despite his size. 

"I'm sorry! I thought if I could get used to eating humans I could get along with other nagas or giantesses!" she choked between sobs. He sighed upon seeing her start to cry again.

"Ok, stop that. Christ, you're twenty times my size, why the hell are crying over eating humans?"

"I'm sorry, I've never liked the idea of eating humans! Why can't everyone just eat fruit and vegetables!? All the predators I've met so casually talk about eating people I can't stand being around them, and I've never been able to talk to any humans or nekos."

Much to her relief his glaze had softened somewhat. He breathed heavily.

"Ok, so what exactly do you want?" he said, softer.

"I just- W-where are you going? "

"Home, hopefully," he looked around uncertainly, "Unfortunately I have no idea how to do that, right now."

"Well, maybe I could come with you? It's dangerous out here and other predators won't attack you if I'm with you."

He eyed her warily, "How can I trust you to not to attempt to eat me again?"

"I'm so sorry! I'll never do that again!" Only your word, then. He interpreted.

"Then how about we introduce ourselves like normal people, then? My name is John," he held out his hand towards her. For several moments she awkwardly attempted to determine how to respond to his gesture before holding out her finger to his hand.

"O-of course! I'm Amipha," she said as they shook.

"I expect you to listen to me. If I say hide you hide. If I say wait you wait patiently. I can't travel with someone who would be a burden or danger to me," she nodded her head vigorously, "Right then, we've already made too much noise. We should move on." He  
began walking off again.

"S-so you'll let me come with you?"

"Only if you can keep up," he said without turning towards her.

A small smile reached Amipha's lips and she quickly slithered up to join him.


	4. Travel

"So you said you were going home, but where exactly are you going? Is your home in Felarya?"

"No it's not. I didn't come here purposefully, and I'm not really sure where I am going, but it's better than doing nothing," John said with determination.

The man and the giant naga moved slowly through the Felaryan jungle, the sun starting to set in sky. They met in the same way most giant nagas and humans do, with the human taking a trip to the naga's stomach, but this naga was not very good at keeping her food down. Particularly sentient food. Despite their tumultuous meeting they traveled together. The naga seeking a friend, the human seeking a way home.

"Ahh so you must have come through one of those dimensional disturbance thingies, then?"

"Dimensional disturbances?" he looked uneasily at her.

"Yeah, Felarya just seems to randomly plop people and places here sometimes temporarily sometimes permanently."

He did not come here on accident that was for sure, but John did not deem that relevant and did not correct her.

"Is there any way off Felarya that you know of?"

"I've heard there are some dimensional gates that connect to Felarya normally, but I don't know where any would be. I know there is a city of humans to the south; they might have a way off Felarya, but I don't really know otherwise..."

He looked at her incredulously, "A city of humans? On Felarya? How is that possible, Felarya has seemed by all indications pretty hostile to humans in general for that to happen."

"It has some sort of defense against giant predators, I don't really know much about it though."

"South it is then," He looked up at the sky for a moment and then started heading off in another direction.

"W-wait, you're just going to go there right away?"

"Of course! I don't intend on prolonging my stay here. How far is it?"

She thought with unease about losing one of her first friends so quickly after meeting them.

"P-pretty far," On human feet anyway. She justified not offering to carry him with his unease with giant predators in general and his obvious self-sufficiency. He would probably not react well to being offered a ride.

John seemed to think on that for moment, "Are you going to stay with me for that long?" She hoped it would've been longer.

"Of course. I-if you are okay with it that is."

He didn't respond. They continued moving through the jungle in silence. They had awkward silences like these often it seemed to Amipha. When she was about to say something she felt something with her naga senses. A giant predator and it was coming their way.

"Ahh! T-there's someone coming!" 

He tensed immediately. He had not thought that her senses were better than his.

"What? Where? Giant-sized?" 

"Yes, they're coming from over there," she pointed, "What do we do?"

He could hide, she would be fine, but if the predator found him it would not think him affiliated to Amipha and might eat him. They could tell the truth about their relationship, but Amipha was small for a giant naga and was clearly not used to fighting in any way, the predator might fight her for him, and she would certainly lose. 

"Quick! Pick me up!" He whispered commandingly.

"W-what why-"

"Just do it!", She carefully picked him off the ground.

"What's your pla-"

"Oh, hello there," an unfamiliar voice said right next to her.

"Ahh!" she jumped at the voice. It belonged to a giantess with an athletic build, short blonde hair and wearing no clothing, as they often did not. She looked at her with amusement and not a trace of malice.

"Sorry, for startling you," she saw John in her hand, "Ah, am I interrupting your dinner?" Amipha did not understand for a moment, but looked down at John realizing she meant him and then back at the giantess, but then back down to John for some sort of guidance or help before realizing that a predator was not supposed to do that and looked back to the giantess, who was now looking at her with confusion in addition to amusement.

"Are you alright? You look kind of nervous."

"A-ah I'm fine! Uh no! You're not interrupting anything. Wait, no, I mean yes I am having dinner! He is my dinner! Err-," She looked down at John again. He only glared at her. _What does that mean? Are you angry at me for suggesting that? Was that part of your plan and you're expecting me to continue with it?! YOU'RE THE SURVIVAL EXPERT STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!_

"I wanted to ask you something, but don't let me interrupt your dinner." She looked expectantly at her for several seconds. _Wait, crap! She means John!_ Not sure how to proceed, she put John in her mouth.

"Mmm humanth are delithouth!" She nervously exclaimed with John still in her mouth. The giantess looked at her strangely; less with amused confusion and more with 'What are you doing'. _Oh no, I didn't do this right, she's suspected something. Is there some ritual I have to do before eating people? She can't expect me to swallow him, I can't put him through that again!_

The giantess looked on to the stranger she had just met, who was sweating profusely and getting more and more nervous with every passing second for a reason she could not begin to understand.

"I- I- I have t-to go!" she stammered and slithered off as quickly as she could. The giantess did not follow and only stared on with growing perplexity.

Amipha went as fast as she possibly could and after several minutes took John out of her mouth and collapsed on the first floor, heaving. John attempted to clean himself as best he could and looked over at Amipha.

"Not in very good shape are we?"

"You-! How could you let me make an idiot of myself like that?"

"What could I have said? 'Yes, that's right. I'm her dinner.'?"

"I just had no idea what to dooo...."

"Well, my original plan was simply to say that you were going to eat me later."

 _Yes,_ Amipha thought, _that was a much better idea than what I did._ She shifted uncomfortably.

"W-well, I'm not very good at coming up with things on the spot," she buried her face in her hands.

"Yes, well everything seems to be alright now, provided she doesn't follow us."

"I don't think she was, but what do we do now?"

John gave her a strange look, "For someone who's apparently spent most of her time alone, you certainly don't seem very self-sufficient."

"It's just that you're usually the one with all the plans and experience and stuff."

John though for a moment and then asked, "What do you want out of life? What are your goals?"

"W-why would you ask me a weird question like that?" He continued to look at her expectantly, "I don't know, most people living in Felarya don't have any huge plans. Just sort of live day by day," she added in a small voice, "I just want people to talk to."

"Like me?"

She brightened a bit, "It _is_ nice to really talk to someone again."

He smirked, "I can't imagine being a very interesting person to talk to."

"I don't even care anymore. Beats talking to myself."

"Well, any in case, we should probably eat something and get some rest. It'll be dark soon."

"O-oh, of course." She looked around briefly before pulling a root the size of his arm with pink leaves out of the ground and handed it to him.

"Here, this is stam root, it's good! Just don't eat the leaves."

He removed the leaves like she said, brushed off any dirt and bit into it. It was sort of crunchy and wasn't too bad. He realized now having someone who knew felaryan flora would be very helpful as all the plants here were completely foreign to him. She was helping herself to several dozen of the roots, but he wasn't sure he could eat all of his in one sitting.

Once he was done he said, "Thank you for showing me that, we should find somewhere to sleep, though."

"Where do you usually sleep? I just sort of curl up anywhere."

"Yes well, not all of us have the privilege of not being on the menu of most creatures."

Despite the presence of a giant predator John did not like sleeping on the ground or in plain view, and he spied a hole at the base of a large branch some 20 feet off the ground. When he began to climb the tree, however, he felt Amipha's fingers gently grip him, and lift him up onto the branch. When he turned back to look at her he saw the small smile she had on her face quickly replaced by an uneasy, expectant expression. She clearly feared his response believing she had crossed a personal line with him, but he didn't want to upset her.

"Uhh, thanks," he said with an awkward smile.

She bashfully smiled again and laid back against the tree while he situated himself within the knot. The sun had now entirely set, but it's dim glow could still be seen on the horizon and the stars which changed as often as the sun could now start to be seen.

"Hey, Amipha," he said quietly, "Tell me about yourself."

He could hear her nervously fidget.

"There's not much to tell."

"I don't know much about felaryan life, I only arrived here yesterday. Tell me, what is a ... what exactly are you?"

"We're called nagas. More specifically a giant naga, because there human-sized nagas too."

"I see, so what is a giant nagas childhood like?"

"Well, I don't know about other giant nagas, but I think I had a good childhood. I mostly lived with my father, my mother left us sometime after my birth. Dad used to say it had to do with spreading out the predator population so we don't overhunt an area, but I think there was another reason that he never told me.

When I hit my growth cycle and I became, you know, actually big my dad started trying to get me to eat humans, b-but I was never able to. Just the thought of it makes me really queasy. He stopped eating anyone around me too, I don't know if he stopped entirely, but I like to think he did. Then, once you get old enough, you're expected to go off on your own. That was really scary for me, I knew not eating humans would make it hard to find friends."

John piped up, "How long ago was that?"

"Not long. Maybe a month."

"What have you been doing since then?"

Her voice became quieter and quieter as she spoke, "Nothing. Just ... going from place to place, trying to find someone who doesn't run away from me or eat humans..."

John gave some heavy thought to his predicament. It would be easy to walk to a perfectly safe town and forget this god-forsaken forest, but Amipha was so pitiful he almost couldn't bear to watch. He wondered with some amusement if their plan had not been to kill him, but to incapacitate him with the plight of a giant, man-eating creature.

"What about you? What was your life like?"

"That's not something I'm comfortable talking about."

 _Perhaps he still doesn't trust me,_ Amipha thought, _We have only been together for half a day._

"What about how you got here? What were you doing before you were taken here?"

The images flashed before John's mind.

_HE KILLED MY MEN!_

_You have failed to provide any evidence for that Mr. Lorn._

_How else could they have known?! He told them all of it!_

_What you did is a heinous crime and any actions Mr. Fletcher may or may not have done does not change that._

It felt like an eternity since then.

"It doesn't matter anymore. Get some sleep."

Giving up, Amipha looked up at the stars, and wondered which John might have come from, and if he would ever return there.

* * *

John awoke early, as he was used to doing. It was still in the dawn twilight and a little bit chilly, and when he looked over he saw Amipha was still sleeping. She looked peaceful, and for once he saw her when she wasn't nervous or flustered about something. She seemed very vulnerable, despite her size, and in many ways was as much of an outsider to this world as he was.

He climbed down the tree, and attempted to find more of those roots Amipha had pointed out to him. When he returned, however, he saw that Amipha was gone. He felt uneasy until he saw the obvious trail she had left. It led directly behind the tree where he couldn't see. Standing perfectly still he listened intently. Sure enough, he heard her breathing, ever so slightly.

Moving as quietly as he could he carefully moved to the tree, keeping it in between them and once he was close enough leapt to the other side.

"HEYWHATAREYOUDOING"

"Ahhh!" she jumped and fell backwards. While John chuckled, Amipha slammed her fists on the ground, "Rrggghh, _I_ was supposed to scare _you_!"

"I'm not an easy person to sneak up on. Come on, we should get moving."

"Well, we don't have go to right away ... That city will still be there," Amipha suggested quietly.

John quickly returned to his pragmatic demeanor. Amipha's desire to delay their separation was obvious, but that did not particularly upset him, "Yes, it probably will, but I might not be," He started to walk of his accord.

Amipha quietly followed him, from behind. _Does he not trust me? Or does he not trust my ability to protect him? He's awfully secretive._ As they walked vaguely south-ish John would occasionally stop and look around, before starting again. She couldn't really tell what he was doing, but she found it amusing.

Soon, Amipha noticed something, "Oh!" John looked over at her, but she didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular.

"What is it?"

"There's humans, three of them," John looked around.

"Where?"

"Over there," Amipha pointed and John followed her hand, but he couldn't see anyone. He moved to the left and right for a better view, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Are they hidden?"

"I don't think so." 

"Well, can you see them or can't you?" John said, starting to get irritated.

"No, I can't see them! I never said I could. I usually sense them way before I see them," John was just confused now.

"Then how do you know where they are?"

"I can sense them."

John stared at her blankly.

"Oh! Uh, some magical creatures like nagas can sense living creatures nearby," 

John appeared to think on that for a moment. "Interesting. What sort of range is there on that? How specific?"

"I, uh, don't really know about range, but I can usually sense them farther than I can see, and all I really know is if they're big or small and maybe what species they are," That was probably how she knew the giantess was coming from earlier.

"In any case, we should greet them, they might know the way to this city," Amipha began nervously fidgeting again.

"But they'll- they'll probably just run away run away from me again..." She was right. It _had_ been what he did when they first met.

"Alright, when we get close you stay behind. I'll go up and introduce ourselves and hopefully convince them you don't mean any harm."

"But ... what if they try to hurt you? I won't be able to protect you," Also true. 

"I'm pretty tough, have confidence,"

As they approached John thought to himself. What might they be like? In a world with as many species as this it was easy to think of your own species as a friend, but that could never be counted on. Simply being of the species didn't guarantee good relations, and no doubt Amipha would strain things even further, but he couldn't leave her alone. But if that was true why was he going to this city at all? If they had some sort of defense or regulations against giant creatures, which was likely, she couldn't follow him there. Stay focused, one thing at a time.

"They're not much further, any closer and they'll probably see me."

"Alright, stay here, I'll call for you soon," John gave his best reassuring smile to take the edge off her nervousness.

As he walked forth into a small clearing he saw them. Three men sitting in a small circle around each other, with packs of provisions or supplies with them.

"Excuse me!" He called out to them. They stirred and one of the quickly got up and pointed something he could not quite make out at him.

He stopped and put his hands up, "Hold fast! I'm unarmed. I just wish to talk." He slowly turned all the way around so they could see. The man stopped aiming at him and they met in the middle. The man he met was small, and looked rather ratty. And as he suspected he did indeed wield a gun. What sort of technology do they have? They were clearly somewhat advanced to have guns, how much further advanced could they be than he was familiar with?

"Who are you? What do you want?" The man asked suspiciously.

"My name is John. I was taken to Felarya by one of its dimensional rifts. I merely wish to know the way to a human city I have heard of."

"Negav?" He looked back towards his companions before looking back at him, " Yeah, we know the way. We can help you out. People get stranded here a lot. Sorry about earlier."

"All is well, I understand your reasons. However, I have a ... somewhat strange companion. She's a giant naga, but I assure you she's completely harmless."

"A giant naga?" He repeated incredulously.

"Yes. She doesn't eat humans and couldn't hurt a fly," The man stared at him before chuckling and shaking his head.

"Gimme a sec," The man said and walked back and began conversing with his companions. He hoped they would not refuse him because of Amipha. They might believe he was attempting to lure them to her so she could eat them. Were he in their position he was not sure he would agree. Eventually the man returned to him.

"I assume you have her waiting off somewhere nearby?"

"Yes."

"You can call her over then. We'll help you guys get to Negav," He knew Amipha would be happy at the chance to make new friends.

"Thank you," he said before turning to the forest, "It's all right! You can come out!"

Amipha nervously slithered out from behind the trees. John saw the men look at her with awe, as well as a few not-so-subtle glances at her bare chest.

"Uh, hello. I'm Amipha."

The man looked her up and down, "Right, well I'm Dret. This is Gonolan and Fillin," He said as he indicated towards the taller, bald man and a stockier, bearded man respectively, and they gave small nods of acknowledgment.

"So you said you know the way to ... Negav was it?" John asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Actually we were heading there ourselves, if you wanted to come with us, we could use the protection," Dret said, indicating Amipha.

"Um well, I'm not so sure, with so many people..." Amipha responded nervously.

"You're presence alone will be helpful, and even failing that we have our own methods of protection," This intrigued John heavily, but he decided not to bring up the topic of weapons that could harm giant predators right now.

"So what has brought you outside of Negav?" John didn't ask any of the three in particular, but Gonolan and Fillin both looked to Dret.

"We, ah, actually came out here to find a rare plant. Supposed to cure all diseases or something I truthfully didn't listen very closely, but he paid a lot so we came out to try and find where it supposed to be."

"Any luck?"

"Nothin'. We get paid either way, though so I'm not complaining," Dret shrugged.

After they began to get ready set off again, John noticed Fillin slung a long, complicated piece of machinery that looked like a gun.

"Fillin, what is that?" John indicated the machine.

"Mmm? Ah, this here, is our 'protection'," Fillin's eyes started to fill with admiration and pride, but it vanished quickly when he noticed Dret was looking at them.

After a brief moment Dret smiled and said, "Yeah it's pretty cool. Why don't you tell him about it, Fillin?"

Fillin returned to his previous demeanor, "It's something I designed myself. Can completely incapacitate a giant predator at 300 yards. Does require some set up and has a cooldown time, but immensely useful."

"Quite so, may I see it?"

"Yeah here lemme show you ..."

Amipha was a little nervous with something like that around her, but she tried to see things from their point of view, considering how much power giant predators had over them. The men didn't seem at be very at ease around her, and it made things rather awkward as they traveled. John talked with them often about their technology and life in Negav. It brought her uncomfortably back to the subject of what to do if he reached Negav. She knew it was selfish of her to prevent him from going there, but there was no way they'd let her in Negav. She wished she had someone who lived in the forest.

Eventually the tall, bald man started to talk to her, "Hey. Your buddy says you don't eat people. What, did you get tired of the taste or just lulling people into a false sense of security?"

"N-no! Nothing like that. I've never eaten a human. I just don't like the ta-" Amipha recalled with some embarrassment the way John tasted when he was briefly in her mouth, "... the feeling."

"Huh? Never eaten one human or neko or anything like that?" He asked incredulously.

"Nope. And I don't plan to start."

For some reason he seemed to look a little conflicted and sad at that.

"My parents died to giant predators."

Amipha was unsure how to respond to that, he wasn't blaming her or anything, was he?

"I'm uh ... sorry about that."

"Why's that? They fed a giant predator. They need to eat too," He said matter-of-factly.

"Wha- I-," She had no idea where he was going with this, "I d-don't think it's that simple ... "

"Why not? That's how you live out here, right? Nice 'n' simple."

"W-well you don't have to eat people to live."

"Isn't just complicating things, though? Why not just eat, are the consequences really going to affect you?"

She did not respond. She did not like this line of conversation. _There's no way he could believe that, right? Was he just teasing me? He looked awfully serious._

John kept her somewhat involved, occasionally talking to her too. She wondered if he was just doing it so she didn't feel so out-of-place. He was clearly more interested in Negavian life. They also told him of the many dangers in the jungle and some horrible stories they had heard and she hoped were untrue. Thankfully, they did not encounter any predators, and before long dusk drew near and Dret piped up.

"Well, it'll be nice to get a warm bed back at Negav, but at the moment we're still going to have to settle with sleeping in the forest. I'd offer you sleep in one of our tents, but ... "

"No need," John responded, "I prefer sleeping a bit off the ground anyway," _And a tent would be pretty obvious thing for a predator to spot,_ He thought, but did not say. 

John searched again for a low branch, which was not too difficult. The Felaryan trees were somewhat gnarly and had many branches, which also made climbing them easier. As he went to ascend, he looked for Amipha, but saw she was talking with Fillin. Unperturbed, he simply climbed up to the branch.

"We're going to be getting up early," Dret told him and Amipha, "We keep a pretty tight schedule."

"Good." He responded. As he settled in and Amipha leaned against his tree his thought turned to the three men they had met today. Dret was obviously their leader, but Gonolan and Fillin seemed to look to Dret quite often almost as though they couldn't say much without permission. Did they lie about their mission? Did they have a secret objective? Perhaps they were carrying something valuable they didn't want them to know about. His mind plagued with doubt and mistrust, he fell asleep.

* * *

"When are we going to do it, though? Tonight, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, we do it tonight, the longer we delay the more dangerous it is."

"We should do it now, then."

Voices. Why are there voices? John awoke in the middle of the night.

"Right, but first we-"

"Hey," He groggily spoke, "You should be sleeping. Go to bed."

"Actually," Dret said to him, "There's something we need to talk about."

"It can wait 'till morning."

"No it can't," John looked over at Dret. His eyes were serious. _This better be good_  
He climbed down to them, "What is it?"

Gonolan walked up on his left and threw an arm over his shoulder, "It's about your naga friend. Don't worry, everything is alright."

Everything was not alright. He caught it out of the corner of his eye. The glint of metal in Gonolan's left hand, on his other side so he could not completely see. An unsheathed dagger. No time for thought he automatically strung into action. He brought his left arm up and behind Gonolan's right shoulder and threw his weight into him, pushing him forward and throwing his dagger hand out behind him. He swiftly wrenched the dagger out of his hand and stabbed him in his heart from the back.

"KILL HIM!!"

Amipha was awoken by yelling, but John did not notice. What he did notice was that Dret had drawn his pistol. John quickly withdrew the dagger and pulled Gonolan's body up to shield himself. While firing several bullets into his fallen comrade, John threw the body at Dret, disorienting him long enough to reach him, deflect his gun hand and slit his throat. Taking the gun, he immediately brought it upon Fillin.

"Wai-" BAM

John panted and regained his composure. With three men dead around him, everything had become quiet again. He put the gun in his belt, but when he turned he saw Amipha staring at him. Her eyes were filled with shock and dread.

"Amipha ..."

She immediately slithered away into the forest.

"Wait! Amipha!"

He ran after her, but she was much faster than he was. _Don't do this, Amipha_. He should have seen this coming. Maybe woke her up. Surely they wouldn't have tried anything if she was there too?

"Amipha!"

He frantically called out into the night. Hoping he had not lost her. He continued to sprint blindly into the forest, despite the danger of doing so. He needed to stay with her to stay alive, and more importantly he couldn't leave her alone at a time like this.

His lungs burning, he stopped and looked around the dark forest. He had no idea where he was. He felt incredibly exposed, and he had no clue where she went. She could have gone anywhere and he would never would have been able to keep pace. Just before considering giving up, he saw a giant form shaking near a tree. In the shadow of the moonlight he had almost missed it. 

As he walked closer he could hear quiet sobs.

"Amipha! Amipha, listen to me!"

"Go away!" She yelled at him harsher than he had ever heard from her. She saw him completely differently now, he could tell.

"Amipha, they were going to kill me. God knows what they would've done to you."

"You're no better than them!" She spat between sobs, and pointed accusingly at him, "You just do whatever is easy. You don't care about anyone around you!"

He realized she meant other giant predators, "I had no choice!"

"There's always a choice!" She cried and buried her face against the tree's bark. Was she right? Did he have a choice? Gonolan had an unsheathed knife, there's no way he didn't intend to kill him. Dret even tried to shoot him. Fillin-

He immediately shot Fillin. He was saying something before he shot him, but he didn't remember what it was. Could he have talked his way out of that situation? You can't hesitate in a combat situation.

"I don't take joy in killing. I'm not like them. But I won't hesitate when my hand is forced."

"It's always about killing," She sobbed, "Everything is here. It all just boils down to killing other people for something you want. I hate Felarya."

He sighed. Comforting people was not his specialty.

"Don't hate Felarya," He walked up and put a hand on her tail, "Because for every horrible place and terrible person, there is a beautiful place. And a kind person. Someone like you, who isn't willing to compromise their morals. Maybe, I'm not capable of meeting that standard. But don't hate me for it."

"You just want someone to protect you until you get to Negav." She quietly replied. John sincerely hoped it wouldn't come to this.

"What I want, is someone I can trust," She turned her head to look at him. Her eyes were filled with sorrow and fear, as though she desperately needed someone to tell her that everything was going to be alright even if it wasn't going to be.

"When I first came here," John continued, "I thought this was a world of death and misery."

"It is ... " She whimpered.

"No. It only is if the people here make it that way. Maybe I shouldn't be here for that reason. But you should, because it's people like you that can make this place better."

She didn't respond. She never felt like she could change anything. But she believed him. Because she wanted it to be true, and didn't want to think about the alternative. A heavy, uncomfortable, painful silence settled over them. She couldn't hear anything except her own breathing and faint sounds of whatever insects lived at this hour.

"We need to sleep," he said quietly.

She stayed where she was and John laid against her tail. John realized that she might be protecting him physically, but she certainly needed protection emotionally if both of them were to survive this trip. 

He knew now there was no way of getting back to their camp for their supplies or the giant-stunning weapon. He at least got the knife and pistol; the knife would be very useful, but he hoped he would not need to use the pistol again. 

Neither of them slept well.

* * *

Neither of them said much when they awoke and started off again, last night's events still heavy on their mind. Traveling became more of a distraction than a means, now. The forest seemed quieter and almost darker without Amipha filling the space with some sort of conversation, anything really.

John realized he did not get any map from the group either, if they had one. It would've made their travel much easier. With next to no knowledge of the land, they were nearly walking blind. Dret had said that Negav was a over a week's journey roughly south-south-west. Depending on its size and repute he hoped being nearer to it would help narrow down its location. A fairly secluded naga like Amipha had at least heard of its existence so surely things couldn't be too bad.

As they trudged on in silence John noticed Amipha suddenly perk up at something. 

"Ah, there's ..."

"Someone coming? A predator?"

"No, it's ... human-sized," She looked confused.

"A human?"

"No, not a human or a neko, I haven't felt anyone like this before," She replied as she began to head off in a different direction. He should've known ignoring them and moving on was not an option for her, he thought as he ran up to join her.

As they came out into a small clearing they saw her. From the distance he saw she was wearing leather armor and was on the ground clutching her leg, but as soon as she saw Amipha she drew a bow and aimed at her. Amipha immediately stopped in her tracks.

"S-stop! This arrow is poisoned, it'll kill you in less than a minute! Don't get any nearer!" Her voice was hoarse, she was obviously injured.

"I won't hurt you! I don't eat humans," Amipha replied back. 

"You're injured, we can help you," John added, but the woman looked startled to hear his voice. She hadn't noticed him until now. 

She looked uncertainly between the two of for a moment, "J-just you" She indicated at John.

He quickly jogged up to her, depending on the severity of her injury time could be of the essence. As he neared he got a closer look at her. She had long navy blue hair tied back into neat ponytail, sea blue eyes, pointed ears, and a lithe, athletic build. Her clothing and light armor definitely suggested someone who spent a lot of time in the forest and the bow was intricately curved and detailed. He could see now the blood on her leg, and there was a large gash along it. 

She looked at him with distrustful eyes and continued to aim her bow at Amipha. _If anyone would be a threat to you it would more likely be me than her._

"Alright, where are you hurt? Did you break your leg?"

"I just need to get to my- I need to go somewhere in the forest."

"Where? How far?"

"It's a ... fair distance," she appeared to say with some discomfort.

"If we're taking you somewhere Amipha would be the best for it. She doesn't eat humans, she wouldn't hurt a fly," John attempted to reassure her.

She looked nervous, like a vulnerable animal backed into a corner.

"Would you be able to carry me?"

"Unless it's nearby, we could be taking much longer than necessary and exposing you to a much higher risk of infection."

She hesitated for a moment and then said, "Alright ..."

John quickly waved Amipha over, and she slithered over. John saw the woman cringe at her proximity.

"Are you alright? Is everything ok?"

"We're going to take her somewhere in the forest, hold out your hand. I assume you can indicate the way?"

Amipha put her open hand on the ground as requested while John helped her on. The woman's fear of her was obvious, but Amipha was actually somewhat nervously excited. She had never really held someone in her hand before, but she had always wanted to. Something about being able to feel such a small, delicate life in her hands, so she might protect it herself. John was clearly a very self-sufficient person, and she could tell he wasn't very comfortable regarding displays of affection. 

With her though, despite her stiffness in her hand, she was happy she could help.

"If you try anything ... " The woman said as she glared uneasily at her.

"I'm promise, you're safe with me. John, here let me take you so we can go quicker."

"Just go, I'll follow you."

"Alright, I'll catch up with you soon."

Going off into the forest where the woman indicated she tried to coax her out of her shell.

"So ... what's your name? Mine is Amipha, that was John."

"... That way." She pointed and moved accordingly, but she did not otherwise answer her question.

"Y-you're an elf, right?"

She shuffled irritably, "That should be obvious."

Amipha smiled, "I've never met an elf before."

"We try to stay away from predators," she replied coldly. Amipha was a little hurt to be lumped together with other predators, but she tried to not let it show.

"S-so where are we going? Do you have a village?"

Again, she did not answer.

Amipha figured she should get used to this sort of treatment. Even if they didn't run away, getting over their previous experience with predators can't be easy, but she couldn't stand it if everyone was like this. She often wondered what things would be like if she were born human-sized. She liked to think it would be easier to make friends, but with her clumsy and timid nature she'd probably just end up eaten, her pessimistic side told her.

She had also been smelling something ever since they came across the elf, but she couldn't quite pin it down and it was becoming strong enough that her curiosity was getting the better of her. _Is it her?_ Without moving her hand so as not to jostle her, she carefully moved her face closer to her.

 _It is!_ She smelled absolutely delicious and when she got close she had the sudden urge to lick her. Overwhelmed with shame and embarrassment she went back to her original position and quashed any such thoughts. _That's not what friends do! Unless they're ok with it. Would anyone be? What if I ended up wanting to do more than that?_

The elf was looking at her strangely.

"A-ahh I'm uh not used to this part of the forest!" Amipha said unconvincingly.

The elf sighed and shook her head at Amipha, "Anyway, let me off here."

"Here?" Amipha looked around, but saw nothing unusual. Just any other patch of the jungle. No village or settlement or anything of the sort.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Alright ..." Amipha replied before carefully depositing her on the ground.

Amipha looked around uncertainly and said, "Well, alright then. I hope I see you again," she turned and started back the way she came. 

"Hey," The elf called out to her and she looked back at her, "Thank you."

Amipha smiled at her and went back to find John. She sighed contentedly. _Maybe John was right_.

Luckily, it was not long before she sensed John coming towards her. 

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, she had me leave her at just some random spot though, it looked like."

"Not a village or something?"

"No. Nothing."

"Hmm, well I'm sure she knew what she was doing. She seemed pretty capable. I'm sure she'll be fine," He replied as he started walking again, "What was she? She wasn't a human or a neko."

"She's an elf. They're a lot less common and pretty secretive."

"I see. Felarya has a lot of creatures of all shapes and sizes it seems."

"That's definitely true, a lot of them I haven't seen either."

After a much more comfortable silence, a far cry from that morning, John said to her, "I bet there are others like you."

"W-what do you mean?"

"Giant predators that don't eat humans or anything," He said very matter-of-factly

"I-" 

_Could there be?_

"It seems to be just a matter of willpower," John looked directly at her as they walked, "I bet you there's others out there that have it too. And I bet you we'll meet them."

Amipha didn't smile, but she felt comforted by that, even if it was just speculation for now. And then she was distracted by something. John saw this and looked in the direction she was, and though there was a large gap in the trees allowing a large swath of sky to be seen, he saw nothing of note.

"What is it?"

"Oh! You probably can't see it. Do you mind if I ...?" Amipha reached down towards him.

He didn't like being made almost entirely impotent in someone else's hand, but his curiosity made him relent.

"Alright, be careful."

He climbed onto her hand, and she took him up that dizzying height he had been at twice before, and both times the person intended to eat him. Once he got over his initial wariness however, he saw it.

Towering above all the others was by far the largest tree he had ever seen.


	5. Vanea

_What a strange naga_ , Vanea thought to herself.

When she saw the naga, Amipha she called herself, she thought she was as good as dead. She knew a predator would find her soon after she stopped being able to magically conceal herself from their senses, and with her injured leg there was no way she could get away from them. But by some stroke of ridiculous luck the naga had actually helped her. She insisted she didn't eat smaller creatures like humans, but Vanea had the horrible feeling she would throw her in her mouth at any moment, up until she actually left her where she asked. Looking in retrospect, she felt a little bad for the way she treated her, Amipha had certainly attempted to be friendly, but many predators did that and didn't hesitate to eat them later so her motives were hardly crystal clear.

Amipha had been confused as to why she asked to be put down in what appeared to be an otherwise uninteresting part of the forest, but she had not told her. Indeed, the unassuming nature of this particular part of the forest was what she and her tribe relied on. Only a very powerful magical being would know the true secret of this place.

Vanea waited patiently on the forest floor, until she heard rustling in the canopy above her. Ordinarily this would have made her instantly alert, but she knew exactly who it was. Climbing steadily down a nearby tree was another elf like herself. He had short, jet black hair and a slim athletic build much like her.

Once he reached the ground he quickly jogged over to her.

"Are you alright what happened?"

"Elias, I think might have broke my leg."

"Alright we'll get you up," As quickly as he came down he vaulted up into the tree's canopy.

After a brief wait she saw a small wooden platform suspended by ropes start coming down towards her from the distant canopy, with Elias riding it down. As he reached the ground he helped her onto it, and it started rising again.

"How did you get hurt? Did you drag yourself all the way here?"

"There was a branch that didn't hold my weight when I was going by the fumac grove. I should've known."

"Way out there? How did you get back here?"

"I actually had some help ... from a giant naga."

He looked at her like she said she gained the power of flight and flew here.

"Yeah, I know. I'll tell you about when my leg gets fixed."

Elias was her closest friend she had since she was a child, though he was often a bit overbearing.

Looking up, she could see the ropes suspending the platform fade into nothingness roughly halfway up into the canopy, as though they materialized out of thin air. This did not particularly disturb her and as neared the "end" of the rope the illusion became clear.

Materializing out of thin air, wooden houses and structures built into tree and walkways between could now be seen. The sounds of the several dozen elves working in the tribe now filled the air, though it was still rather muted, so as not to unduly stress their protection. Protected in this way, their tribe lived in relative peace and safety from the dangers of the jungle, and few left except for the several scouts like Vanea and Elias who foraged and gathered what was needed.

As they neared the true top it could seen that the ropes were connected to a pulley system attached to a wooden "pier". The two elves hoisting the platform up locked it in place when they reached the top and helped her off.

"She's hurt her leg, could you get Ynera, please? You, can you help me with her?" Elias said to them and she found herself being carried again. She did not like being carried. It made her feel weak. Scouts were supposed to be tough and able to survive on their own. Making a rookie mistake like not properly looking where you're leaping should have by all rights been her death. If not from the fall itself, most certainly from predators. 

All scouts could magically hide their "life signatures" they gave out to certain predators, but concentrating enough to do that while injured was very difficult.

Hopefully, someone who could help with that injury was Ynera. She was one of the Elders, who didn't quite make decisions for the tribe, but in practice that's basically what happened. They all also had strong magic, and constantly maintained the illusion surrounding the tribe. Ynera in particular specialized in healing magic. A broken leg would unlikely be much of a problem for her.

After carrying her over a few short walkways they brought her into her "home". It was more of a hole in the side of the tree, barely enough room for a bed and some personal possessions. Space was somewhat a rare commodity as the illusion was harder to maintain the larger it was.

They set her down on her bed, but Elias remained in the doorway.

"Well?" He looked at her expectantly.

She smirked at his eagerness, "There's not much to tell really. She apparently doesn't eat humans or elves or anything. She even had a human with her."

"... Really," he said incredulously.

"I almost killed her when I saw her. But, she took me straight here like I asked. I thought she was going to eat me any second so I was kind of mean to her."

"Vanea?" Ynera popped her hand through the doorway around Elias, "What did you do to yourself this time?"

"I think I broke my leg," She said to her and Ynera kneeled over the leg in question. Despite looking of similar age as Vanea, no one aged past maturity on Felarya, and was at least 200 years old. She had long blue hair, somewhat brighter than her own and a much wispier build than her, clearly not used to physical activity, but she more than made up for the shortcoming.

"Alright hold still," Ynera said to her and she bit her lip. It was always hurt the worst at first.

Ynera held her hands over her leg and her hands started to glow a bright blue. Vanea hissed when she felt the pain shoot through her leg and she felt something in her leg shift. After several seconds much of the pain subsided to a dull ache, but Ynera continued with her hands over her leg. The worst part was out of the way, but it would continue like this for several minutes.

Without stopping Ynera spoke, "So I saw that naga drop you off. What was with that?"

"I can only tell you what I told Elias. She said she didn't eat humans or elves, and lacking any other way back she helped me here."

"Well, that was awfully kind of her," Ynera responded.

"Tell me you don't think the naga was telling the truth!" Elias said to Ynera, "Need I remind you she's still a giant predator?"

"Actions speak louder than what species someone is. I would always advise caution, but do you think this predator meant you harm, Vanea?"

"I thought so at first, but when she brought me all the way here, I don't think so."

She had heard of nekos that didn't eat tinies, so it should stand to reason that there would be some predators that didn't eat humans.

"I think I'm going to follow her," Vanea said after a moment.

"You're crazy," Elias said, "What if she changes her mind?"

"I don't think she will, but once I'm healed I'm confident I can protect myself."

Ynera's hands finally stopped glowing, and her leg now felt almost completely back to normal. Ynera stepped back and Vanea stood up and hopped a few times to test her leg. Aside from some numbness it held up to pressure very well. Their magic could heal quite a lot, but usually if something happened to someone they would not return at all, she thought with some grimness.

"So," Ynera said to her, "Going off to break your leg again?"

"Something like that."

"Hey, Vanea," Elias looked at her seriously, "Are you sure about this? This sounds like nothing but trouble."

"I owe her my life, and I'm a bit curious about her too. I _do_ know how to care of myself."

"It's just- This _is_ a giant predator we're talking about. What do you stand to gain from all this?"

"Who knows? Maybe a friend."

Vanea ensured her bow was in position over her shoulder, and began to head out again. This near to the canopy branches and limbs stretched in every direction. She jumped swiftly and quietly onto the nearest one and began her descent. Most elves and scouts especially kept to the trees for movement. It made them significantly harder to track, as well as more concealed from predators which would be more likely to be on the ground.

When she got to the ground, she picked up the naga's trail almost immediately, clearly no intention of any kind of stealth. Then again, if this naga didn't hunt anything she supposed it would be unnecessary. Though, it did make her more susceptible to those few creatures would hunt _her_.

The trail also quickly met up with the human the naga had been with. Vanea wondered what his story might be. Maybe he was someone she saved. He seemed somewhat capable of surviving in the jungle, much unlike the naga had she not won the species lottery. She thought on that for a moment. Despite being born into one of the most advantageous positions in the jungle she did not seem to abuse her power or take the easy way, which was quite admirable.

All of a sudden their trail stopped, and then made a 90 degree turn. Vanea looked and saw it led directly towards the Giant Tree.

_Of course,_ she thought, _This couldn't be easy, now could it?_


	6. Mick and Tanis

The Giant Tree. Despite the rather uncreative name it was an accurate description. Standing an innumerable number of kilometers tall it dwarfed the already colossal trees of the Felaryan jungle. So huge were its many branches and boughs all sorts of communities of all sizes called it home, many of which did not even know of the existence of the others.

Its majesty was being viewed by a giant naga and a human, quite a long distance away, but still very visible. They were friends despite initial appearances. The human, John, was awed by it, but regarded it was one of the many wonders of this world, something to observe, rather than experience, as it was nearly perpendicular in direction to their true destination, Negav.

When he looked up at his companion, Amipha, however, he did not like the look she gave. Being fairly secluded she had seen nothing of the sort, and it not take much to divine that she wanted, more than anything, to go there.

"Amipha, we can't. It would add days to our trip."

"B-but, ... just look at it!"

"I know, it looks amazing."

"Imagine if we went to the top of it," she said, her eyes filled with wonder, "Or even just halfway up, we would be able to see so far!"

John stopped and thought about that for a moment. It was true they could probably see very far from the tree, possibly all the way to Negav. But it seemed like a lot of effort for a dubious gain. He looked over at Amipha, who was staring at him, her eyes begging. He sighed heavily.

"Alright, alright, we'll go."

"Yay!" Amipha spread her arms out as if to hug him, but realized the difficulty in doing so and opted to pat him on the head with her finger.

"Ok, calm down," he said through a smile, her eagerness rubbing off on him. 

It was not long after they started out towards the tree that they heard a familiar voice from above them.

"I wouldn't go there if I were you."

Amipha jumped at the sound of the voice, and John looked over to see the familiar elf with the navy blue hair up in the branches roughly at Amipha's height. 

"You? But how? I thought your leg was broken?" John questioned her, thoroughly baffled.

"Come now, we've only just met. Don't expect me to give all my secrets away," She responded with a wry smile.

"W-well do you have healers? A village?" John blurted out urgently, "I'm stranded here, and I'm trying to find a way to Negav, if you have supplies or-"

"I'm sorry, but that's not really something I'm willing to give away," she said curtly.

This only seemed to anger and baffle him even more, "Why?! Look around you, I can hardly spare any advantage I can get. I don't mean to impose but these are rather extreme circumstances-"

"Hey!" she cut him off, her tone quickly changing hostile, "You have my sympathy, but there are lot of people like you. I don't make it here by babbling everything about me to every stranger I meet, because at least half of them end up in stomachs like hers, " She jabbed a finger at Amipha, and she winced in response, "And people are willing to trade anything to spare their own hide, so forgive me if I'm not very forthright."

There was a pregnant silence while John sighed, and thought with a scowl.

"I understand. I'm sorry," he eventually responded quietly, "So, why did you come back?"

"At the very least, to warn you."

"Of what?"

"That," She indicated the gigantic tree, "That's the Giant Tree."

John briefly looked back at the tree in question in between the open patches of canopy.

"Yes, it is a tree which is giant. I would call that an apt description."

"It's _The_ Giant Tree, have you not heard of it?"

John and Amipha both looked at each other before shaking their heads.

"You should really shouldn't go blindly waltzing into places you've never heard of. That's where Crisis lives, a particularly voracious naga, and not to mention the giant harpies there too. Not that they would be much of an issue for _you_ ," she said indicating Amipha, who nervously fidgeted.

"You never told us your name," John changed the subject.

She looked hesitant for a moment before replying, "It's Vanea."

"Why don't you come with us? We'd be much less likely to get ourselves killed with you around."

"Why are you even going there?"

"Have you never wondered what the view might be like?" John asked plainly.

"Curiosity gets people killed."

"Well, it's not every day you get the protection of a predator, so consider this an invitation to indulge your curiosity."

Vanea scoffed, "Well, the real reason I came here, was to apologize," she said looking meaningfully at Amipha.

Amipha only frowned in confusion.

"You probably saved my life. And I apologize that I couldn't adequately thank you for it. I was still afraid you were going to try something when you brought me where I asked, so I was sort of cold to you."

Amipha smiled a warm, bright smile, "It's okay. I understand why you treated me the way you did. I'm just glad I could help. And I'm doubly glad you came back."

It was nice to see Amipha happy about something, John thought.

"I know a way you can thank me, though," Amipha continued.

"What's that?"

"Come with us."

Vanea sighed and then smirked, "Alright, but I reserve the right to back out and save my skin at any time."

Amipha could be terribly persuasive when she wanted to be, John mused.

***

As the three of them traveled together, Vanea mostly stayed to the branches.  John saw the obvious advantages of this, but found he couldn't jump far enough to make it as fast or useful as simply walking normally. Vanea said the current danger was significantly lessened, but continued to do so out of habit.

"So tell me," Vanea said, still in the branches, "How did you two meet?"

Vanea saw the two look at each other uneasily. Amipha nervously looked away, and John cough into his hand.

"Well," he said, "It was shortly after I came to Felarya, and I had, by that point, understood the dietary habits of most creatures Amipha's size. And Amipha didn't make a lot of friends. Neither her size or our size. So she thought in order make friends with others her size she would need to get used to eating humans and the like. And I was the first the attempted this with."

Amipha was blushing furiously, but continued to let John speak for her.

"Interesting," Vanea replied, "How did you talk her out of that?"

"I, uh, didn't."

Vanea frowned in confusion.

"She actually did end up eating me, but she couldn't quite keep me down. I guess willpower is stronger than biology!" he awkwardly laughed.

Vanea did not respond, and looked somewhat disturbed.

"B-but I'm not like that anymore! I'm so sorry for what I did to you, John. I'd never do something like that again!" Amipha exclaimed.

"And that's really what matters after all, wouldn't you agree, Vanea?" he said quickly.

Vanea hesitated, "Uh, y-yeah, I guess that's true. I'm a little surprised it went that far and you still ended up being friends."

"Well we've learned a lot about each other in the mean time," John said.

There was a somewhat awkward silence between them before John quickly changed the subject.

"So what about you? Tell me about elves."

"Well, we have the dubious distinction of being one of the most delicious prey for predators," she said through a thin smile, and Amipha looked away nervously, "And we tend to be a bit more a subtle than humans tramping through the woods. We prefer to rely more on stealth and magic to protect ourselves from predators."

"Magic?" John asked. He heard Amipha refer to magic when talking about her unique senses, but he chalked that up to mere ignorance. Vanea certainly seemed experienced enough to tell the difference.

"I can't do much more than hide myself from their senses," She said gesturing towards Amipha, "But some can do all sorts of stuff. Healing, summoning, conjuration, you name it."

John revised his opinion of Vanea and chalked that up to ignorance as well.

"I see."

"We also tend to be stronger and more agile than humans or nekos."

"Is that so? Well, we'll see about that."

***

Vanea's presence was incredibly helpful, John thought, even more so than Amipha's. Based on her descriptions she often spent time in the wilderness alone, and the advice of someone his own size very useful. She seemed to have taken every precaution to avoid detection from predators, even if the information was not currently useful he could not always count on Amipha's presence or ability he reminded himself.

As they neared the huge tree, Vanea said that she had not actually been to it herself, and had only heard of it from others, though the stories were almost entirely ones of warning. The stories told mostly of giant predators, indeed it seemed to very much be the number one threat for human-sized creatures. He wondered how many stories said that they were evil, thoughtless monsters, which he may have even believed were it not irreconcilable with what he saw looking up at Amipha, smiling at some bird, or peering at some plant. He hadn't even seen her eat any kind of meat since they'd met.

Vanea, on the other hand seemed closer to himself, in terms of understanding what was necessary and being willing to make sacrifices to get by. He liked her, he concluded. They often competed with each other in physical contests, like seeing how long they could sprint for, or how much they could lift. John was stronger, built for close-quarters-combat, and Vanea was quicker, built for avoidance and evasion. His regimen served him well with his previous line of work, but it was obvious Vanea's tactic would serve much better in this new environment. The physical strength of a human-sized creature was negligible compared to a giant predator.

As John thought, Vanea suddenly jumped down next to him.

"Don't touch that," Vanea quickly told him, breaking him from his reverie.

John stopped and looked ahead of him, to see a large bulbous plant in front of him. It truthfully didn't look very out of place in Felarya and probably would not have paid it much thought.

"That's a sneeze pod. Touch it, and it'll puff out a dust that'll paralyze you."

"Oh, yes," a teasing melodious voice that was definitely not Amipha's said from behind them, "Not dangerous itself of course, but you would be at the mercy of anything happening to pass by."

All three of them whirled back at the sound of her voice. John saw another half-creature, a gargantuan insectoid spider with a human upper a half. She was a beautiful woman with pale skin and long jet-black hair, grinning at them seductively. _How had she snuck up on us? All three of us, even._

Panicking, Amipha quickly grabbed Vanea and John, "T-they're mine!"

She stepped forward on those strange, chitinous legs, "Are they now? You sure didn't seem very concerned about making sure they didn't run off."

"T-they know I could just catch them again if they ran away."

Poor Amipha was sweating bullets.

"Eat one," she said with a slightly more sinister tone.

"W-wha-, I-, I'm n-not hungry right now!"

"Getting food before you're hungry? You aren't very good at lying," she chided and continued to stare her down, "Give them to me,"  she commanded with a growing hostile tone.

John's previous fears seemed like they might become reality. If this predator had snuck up on them she might already know or suspect Amipha didn't see them as food and would want them herself. If it came to a physical confrontation he could only hope that the three of them would be enough.

Amipha backed up into a tree, as the half-spider giantess advanced on them, "T-they're not yours. Go away!"

"And if I don't? Are you willing or even able to enforce your demands?"

He felt Amipha's grip tighten around him, and her hands were becoming sweaty.

He still had the knife and gun from the men who were unfortunate enough to assault him yesterday. Neither seemed like they would particularly useful against a giant predator.

"Give them to me _now._ "

"No! I said go away!"

The giantess didn't truthfully look very built for physical combat, not much better than Amipha, anyway, but actual willingness to fight could make all the difference.

She seemed to tire of her little game, and suddenly sprung into action. She grabbed Amipha by the shoulders and slammed her against the tree. Amipha grunted in pain, and John was thrashed about through the air.

The giantess then grabbed Amipha's wrist right next to himself and twisted sharply, hanging himself sideways. Amipha screamed in pain and her grip loosened but she did not let go of him. He could do very little constrained like this, but if she was aiming for them he wasn't sure if fending for themselves on foot would be much better.

The giantess began to twist Amipha's wrist harder, but she quickly brought her tail up and slammed her to the ground with it. The giantess lost her grip and Amipha took the opportunity to attempt to slither away, but the giantess recovered quickly and grabbed the end of her tail. When she fell forward she let go of himself and Vanea, roughly knocking them both to the ground.

"RUN!" she cried after them, and turned back to face the giantess.

John quickly picked himself up, began sprinting away and saw Vanea do the same next to him. If the giantess was aiming for them and not Amipha everyone should be alright as long as the two of them could get away. For several tense moments, he did nothing but single-mindedly gain as much distance as possible, fully expecting to be yanked away at any moment. After he had gained some distance from the grunting and crashing he glanced back, trying not to slow down.

Amipha was clearly not used to fighting as she feebly kept her arms up to protect herself from the giantess' assault only going on the aggressive when she attempted to extricate herself from Amipha and go after them.  The giantess tore into her with incredible ferocity and it was clearly a question of how long she could hold out, and it didn't look well.

The giantess landed a fierce jab in her ribs, followed by another at her face, and Amipha cried in pain.

He faltered and turned to Vanea, who was also sprinting away, "Wait!"

"What is it? We need to get out of here!"

"We can't just leave her like this!"

"There's nothing we can do for her!"

John looked back at the two, torn between the necessity to escape and his un-fulfillable obligation to protect Amipha. 

The giantess continued her assault, slamming Amipha's head into the tree with two hands, and John could see blood. She collapsed lifelessly to the ground and did not get back up. Finally seeing her opportunity, she reeled on them and with terrifying speed bolted towards them.

John jumped at her speed, and began sprinting away again, but barely got three steps before her fingers enclosed around him, decidedly less gentle than Amipha's grip. Vanea seemed to have gained somewhat more ground and drew her bow at the giantess, but she flicked her hand, whispered something, and a purple ring materialized around Vanea which immediately constricted her. Her bow snapped, but she continued her grip on her arrow.

"Urgh! Finally!" she said, panting, "You two better have been worth that."

He saw Vanea hoisted up in her other hand, still bound by that weird purple thing. Focus, one thing at a time. Analyze the situation.

His opponent was larger, stronger, and faster than he was by orders of magnitude, but he had gotten out of this situation before. How had he done it then? He twisted away at the last moment because she dropped him down above her mouth. Luck, and carelessness on her part. He couldn't rely on that again. His hands weren't constrained by her grip, and he slowly drew his gun, making sure to keep it just out of her sight. There was no way anything short of a 100mm artillery shell could do any damage, but damned if he wasn't going down without a fight.

"Oh, delightful! I haven't had an elf in quite some time," she happily chirped, "But you just look like some deadbeat who just wandered into Felarya," she said peering at him, which noticeably less enthusiasm.

With a careful, well-practiced motion he brought the gun up and fired straight into her right eye, directly in front of him.

"Argh!" she reeled, but her grip on him did not relent. That purple ring around Vanea he noticed disappear, however, and her first action was to remove her arm from under the giantess's fingers, still, surprisingly, clutching the arrow and immediately stab the giantess in her hand with it.

"Alright! No more toys!" she said angrily, and quickly used her other hand, still holding Vanea, to roughly pluck the gun from his hands, toss it aside, and did the same with Vanea's arrow.

"What is it with littles and shooty or pokey things? Always so feisty. Don't worry, I have a much better place for you to be that energetic."

She brought Vanea up to her mouth, and with obvious pleasure placed her inside, deftly maneuvering her the rest of the way into her mouth using her tongue with unnecessary flourish. Vanea hardly reacted beyond quiet grunts. Good, she too had some dignity in death. He couldn't stand people who begged and cried when faced with certain death.

She moaned with pleasure as she swished Vanea around in her mouth, until finally after far too long she swallowed, and Vanea went down her throat. She licked her lips and sighed with contentedness.

"Well, I guess you're next then," she spared no time lifting him to her face and toward her open mouth. He braced himself to bolt should the opportunity present itself again, but her fingers remained fully enclosed around him until he reached her damp, humid mouth, at which point her lips took hold quickly and he found himself once again in the mouth of a giant predator.

Unlike last time, the owner of the mouth took her time, and was obviously enjoying the process. Hardly any comfort was at least it was less rough this time, Amipha being rather stressed and uncomfortable the previous time. Saliva coated all him over in the darkness, and he was tossed and turned until he felt himself pushed towards the back of her mouth, where a quick, strong muscular action gripped him and pulled him down with a _gulp_. 

Once again, he took that short, cramped journey down  into a stomach, much less happy with his odds with making it out this time. He was squeezed out of an orifice and felt himself land on a fleshy wall.

It smelled rancid, and was hot, cramped, pitch-black and even more humid. Disgusting glorps and gurgles of various body processes surrounded him making it feel even more claustrophobic . This was certainly not how he expected to die, for much of his life there was no doubt it would be at the end of a gun, rather than a peculiar, very delayed execution. 

He pulled out the knife and jammed it into the wall, but the flesh was tough and rubbery and merely gave away rather than break. He continued stabbing, venting his frustration, until, breathless, he stopped and leaned against the wall.

He thought of Amipha and Vanea, and was immediately crushed by an immense weight of guilt and regret. Poor, innocent Amipha deserved a better lot in life than she had gotten. If he had not come here at all Amipha might not be dead, and Vanea might not soon be as well. It wasn't enough for them to kill him? They had to drag others in it as well? 

He couldn't help it, despite his thoughts just moments ago, and started crying. Of all he wrought upon himself and others.

"John?" he heard Vanea's voice, not afraid at all. It seemed funny to him, that she could remain composed at such a time where he could not.

"It's alright."

She had moved next to him, from the distance of her voice. 

"Don't give me worthless platitudes," he choked, "Our lives are far too short for that."

"Are you ok?" she seemed genuinely curious, and John could not help but laugh, truly happy to have some levity at the end.

He decided to answer honestly, "Well, she was pretty rough when she took my gun! My wrist is a bit sore," he chuckled, "But otherwise, I'm just fine!"

"That's good, it shouldn't be long now." 

Now he was confused, "Wait, what is?"

Was it just him or did her stomach seem more tumultuous than normal?

"Alright hold on."

John didn't question and braced himself as, the whatever it was her stomach was doing increased in intensity. Wait a minute, he has seen this before, this churning. It came stronger and stronger, until he lost all sense of location as he was buried under writhing flesh and tossed and thrown about. He felt himself going upwards, the brief chill of fresh air on his saliva-soaked body and then fell with a thud on natural ground.

He once again found himself disoriented, coughing and spluttering, and covered in fluids on the forest floor. He regained control of his wits to figure out what was going on. Vanea was there next to him in a similar situation he was. He looked up to see the giantess just nearby who was surprisingly also coughing and spluttering, but clearly much worse. She was vomiting up the entire contents of her stomach, and frantically gasping for breath. 

He kept tense to see if she would recover, but it only got worse, as she writhed on the ground in agony. He watched her, as he had so many others, gasp her last breaths.  She grew still, and her chitinous legs curled inward. He did not linger on her much longer than necessary to confirm her fate. Poison, or venom of some kind, there was no doubt. But how had it gotten in her?

Amipha!

He whirled around, searching, "Amipha! Amipha!" he shouted.

Not far, he found her still form near the tree they had been fighting next to, and begun sprinting there immediately .

"Amipha?! AMIPHA!" he yelled after her.

"Please, oh please, don't be dead ... Please, come on," he frantically muttered under his ragged breaths.

As he neared he saw the blood streaming down somewhere from her scalp, and pooling around her head. He had to get to her, he had to know she was alive.

After what felt like an eternity, he reached her and nearly barreled into her from his sprint. He urgently pressed his hands and face against her still-warm wrist. She had a pulse. He almost collapsed from relief, and drew shaky breaths. _Alright, she's still alive, got to keep her that way. Got to find and compress that gash, check for-_

"Fuck!" he muttered as he realized how little he could do himself, she was just too big. He needed to get her conscious.

He ran over to her face and hit her on the cheek, "Hey! Hey, kid! Get up! You're injured; You need treatment!"

He heard Vanea come up behind him, and he whirled on her, "Come on! We need to get her awake!"

"How?"

"Anything! Beat the crap out of her!" he was worried at first, but he knew it would take far more than he could give to physically hurt her, or at the very least make her any worse than she already was, and kicked her as hard as he could in the nose.

Amipha furrowed her eyebrows and groaned. As she stirred, she opened the eye that didn't have blood over it.

"John ... You're okay ...", she said hoarsely and with a weak, but bright smile, "I was so worried ..."

She brought her hand up and cradled him close to her face.

"Ah, I-i'm glad you're okay, too, but you're injured. You need to do what I say. First, you need to get up."

She braced herself against the ground and slowly picked herself up. She was covered all over in bruises and hissed and grabbed her side, possibly a rib injury.

"Where's ...? Oh, Vanea you're okay too," she looked to Vanea.

"But, what happened to ...?" Amipha looked past Vanea and saw the body of the giantess and inhaled sharply, "Is she ...?"

"Yeah, she's dead," Vanea replied.

"But, how did-"

"Listen, I have questions too," John interrupted, "But, we don't know how injured you are, and we need to treat what we do know."

"R-right, right, okay," she shook her head and put her hand against it.

***

Amipha had been relatively lucky. She had bruised ribs, a concussion along with the gash, and numerous other bruises. It's possible she might have more serious internal injuries, but it was hard for him to ascertain by proxy. After making sure to retrieve his gun, they had backtracked a bit to a stream so Amipha could clean her wound, and so he and Vanea also could clean themselves.

"Make sure you tie that tightly," he told Amipha as she tied some tough sort of plant fiber around head over the gash, "And don't do any more strenuous activities, which includes fighting. We're just going to stay put for a few days. Any more damage could be irreparable, or fatal."

"I'm just glad you guys are okay ... I thought you guys might've been ..." Amipha's voice broke.

"It's alright, we're all okay," John reassured her.

Amipha looked away, "Well, that dridder isn't ..."

"Yeah. She isn't okay. I'm still not sure what happened back there," he turned to Vanea, "How did that- that thing die?"

"They're called dridders, and she died because she was poisoned."

"It seemed like it, but by what?"

"By me. I wasn't bluffing when I said I could kill her when we first met, " she said plainly, indicating Amipha.

"Y-you did?" Amipha said in disbelief, clearly upset.

"She was going to _eat_ us, Amipha!" John snapped and Amipha was taken aback by his aggressiveness.

"I-" Amipha started, but then hesitated, and looked away, saying no more.

_Not so quick to disagree once you've felt the threat yourself, huh?_

He hadn't expected her to back down so quickly.

"So, you have a poison that can kill giant predators?" John turned back to Vanea, "Why didn't you-"

"Because," she cut in, "I only had enough for one application. It comes from a very rare plant, takes a long time to create, and doesn't produce much."

"When did you apply it?"

"When she was holding us in her hands. If you hadn't shot her then I'm not sure I would've had a chance otherwise. Not bad for a 'deadbeat that just wandered into Felarya'," She chuckled and he laughed.

"Speaking of, what was that purple thing that constricted you?"

"That was definitely her. Immobilization magic, and probably also magic to conceal her sound so she could sneak up on us."

Here she goes again with her 'magic', "Okay, you keep talking about magic. What exactly does that mean?"

"The types that are used and vary pretty wildly, especially on Felarya; I couldn't tell you what to expect. All it means is that someone very unassuming can be very, very dangerous, but most people you'll meet don't know any magic."

"How do people learn this magic?"

"Same way you'd learn anything else, really. Some people have a talent for it, most probably learn it from someone else, and I'm sure plenty have figured it all out themselves. Don't overestimate its usefulness, though. Most people that know magic here end up the same way as everyone else."

This complicates things. He was sure immobilizing someone like that was just the tip of the iceberg. Who knows what else someone could do, and it appeared to be usable by anyone, giant or not. Where he came from, power meant wealth, persuasiveness. Now it was just strength, or stealth. Magic was just another tool to that end.

"There's another thing about Felarya, you probably didn't know. We heal here a lot faster than other worlds. In a few days she'll be back to normal."

"Really?"

"And you don't age here either."

John tried not to gape, "That's amazing. You just live forever here?"

Vanea winced, "Well no, certainly not. People die quite a lot here, from well, you know ..."

She made sure Amipha wasn't looking before gesturing awkwardly towards her.

"Ah, right."

Magic , immortality, impossibly huge trees, creatures he couldn't have even imagined. He felt like this was all some sort of dream, too unreal to believe, but too vivid to ignore. He just needed to adapt, he had done it before, he could do it again.

***

The next day went by slowly. He didn't like idling as opposed to moving forwards and accomplishing something, but he couldn't risk aggravating Amipha's injuries. He could tell she was in a lot of pain, doing any sort of movement, she would falter and hiss under her breath occasionally whenever she reached for something or moved in the wrong way, but she never complained. Thankfully Amipha didn't seem to show any signs of any more serious internal injuries, against which he could do little. She still had to forage and he would've preferred to forage for the both of them, but the size difference obviously made getting enough for her problematic. 

With Vanea away like she usually was, he now found himself with a lot of free time and not a lot to fill it. So his thoughts drifted towards what he _used_ to fill it with. It seemed so long ago now.

He had none of his usual tools, so it would be rather slow and sloppy, but he would make do with just his knife. After a brief search he found a recently fallen branch a few inches thick, and stabbed into it with the knife, or at least attempted to. He could barely get the tip in. He gave it a knock with his finger and attempted to lift the branch, and was astonished by its density, much denser than ironwood. It was olive-colored and had a sort of wavy, meandering grain to it. He looked at the trees around him. Sure enough, that olive wavy wood belonged to these towering colossal trees that seemed to make up the majority of the canopy. Understandable that trees of such size would need to be so dense. No way he could use this.

Luckily, though they were not as common, there did seem to be other, smaller species of trees growing in the light the larger ones did not cover and he was able to find something more usable with a similar girth. He then meticulously began chopping away at it with the knife, and prying the two parts away with his foot. After he cut it in two, he began again a few inches down, to give himself a good chunk of wood to work with.

Lying nearby, he could feel Amipha's curious eyes on him. No doubt soon enough she would ask what he was doing.

After not long, though much longer than his liking, having to use a knife designed for slicing rather than chopping or sawing, he cut his block of wood free. As he sat down and began shaving away at it, he idly wondered what he would make. Maybe a bird or something.

"What are you making?" Amipha piped up, lying on her stomach.

"I don't know. Maybe a bird."

"Oh! So you're like, carving something decorative?"

"Well, not much else to do for the moment."

"Is that what you do? Like your job? I've heard humans do that sometimes."

"It used to be. A long, long time ago. Worked as a carpenter, making things out of wood, surely you have some conception of that?"

"Uhh, yeah. We don't really build stuff, but I've seen nekos who do. Building houses and things. I've always sort of wondered what for, since I've never really felt like I needed any of that stuff."

"Well, I'm sure you can understand the use of a house. It keeps the wind out, it keeps you dry when it's raining or snowing ..."

"It doesn't really get very windy while in down in the forest, and I don't mind rain at all. What's snowing?"

"Err nevermind that."

He supposed she might not really need protection from the elements, being as large as she is. Being obviously nomadic in some sense and fairly high on the food chain meant that a permanent settlement wasn't really necessary. 

It was strange, knowing that her species was apparently one of the top predators. He hadn't met any other giant nagas yet for comparison, but no doubt like every other creature her size as well as from her own account they were carnivorous.

He looked again at her snake lower half. Above the waist she looked and acted fairly human, but that thing was completely alien to him. She often unconsciously or at least idly shifted it about, curling and uncurling it, or wrapping it around this or that. She clearly had no difficulty in moving using it, slithering about and even climbing with instinctual ease, but failed to wrap his mind around attempting to move with one.

It had golden scales, without any discernible markings as he knew snakes sometimes had, with a milky, off-white underbelly. It struck him that gold wasn't a very good color to attempt to blend into the environment with. Perhaps since they didn't get predated on very often abnormal colors weren't really punished? But no, they needed to hunt too, they'd still need to hide. He wondered if Amipha might know, but he doubted she did.

Most disconcerting of all was simply its size. Its girth was as large as Amipha was at the hips, and he knew snakes could be incredibly strong for their size. He couldn't even imagine what a enormous-sized one could do with it. Could easily crush a tank and he felt it in the ground every time she moved.

Worse still, he thought of the energy needed to utilize a tail like that. She was hardly a glutton, especially for her size, but when she ate fruit the size of a car and still wasn't full he was reminded of how much she doubtlessly needed to maintain herself. When she occasionally complained of not being able to scavenge enough, and slept with a still growling stomach, he tried to push away thoughts of what other giant predators would fill the void with. He would quietly hope her dietary habits weren't some passing youth phase, and instinctively plan escape routes, imagine how quickly she could get to him, or how quickly he could evade her if push came to shove.

"You should make it into a tree," She said in a bright gentle voice, almost giving him a start.

He looked into her golden eyes, and didn't see hunger. He suddenly couldn't see her as some sort of man-eating monster at all, and felt silly and guilty for thinking so. What a striking contradiction, it seemed. 

He relaxed, now aware that he had tensed up, "A tree it is, then."

***

Her recovery had been nothing short of miraculous. Or rather, it was not the recovery itself that astonished him, but its speed. In less than a few days, she looked and claimed to be completely fine, and it was hard to believe not long ago he thought she might be dead.

"Are you sure you're alright?" John asked.

"I'm fine!" Amipha insisted, stretching, "You sound like my dad fussing over me."

"I'm just not used to this- this super healing," he said thoughtfully, "If you are, though, there's something I wanted to try."

She looked at him inquisitively, so he continued, "I want to you to grab me."

She was puzzled, but reached towards him. Before her fingers enclosed him, though, John stepped out of the way and Amipha faltered.

"No, not like that," John attempted to correct her, "Faster."

She reached towards him, faster this time, but he stepped out of the way again.

Amipha, confused, asked, "I don't-"

"Come on. _Grab_ me, like you mean it," he insisted.

Amipha frowned and reached at him more forcefully, but still got out of the way easily. _She's still not getting it._ He thought.

" _Faster!_ " he yelled.

"I could if you stopped moving around!"

"That would defeat the point!" he laughed.

She continued making grabs at him increasing in vigor each time, but he still evaded her every time.

"Come on now! I know you can do it!" he spurred her on.

"S-stay still!" she said, suppressing a giggle.

She was getting closer, but her movements were too slow, too obvious. He began leaping or rolling out of the way, twisting to avoid her fingers, as Amipha started alternating her hands.

"Can't catch me!" he joked.

"Come here, you!"

John, breathless, continued evading her, having more fun than he intended, but not unhappy about it. Finally, the anaerobic exercise caught up with him, and he was just too sluggish to evade the quick, forceful grab from Amipha. Enough to knock the wind out of him, but not hurt him.

As soon as she grabbed him she immediately brought him to her face, before suddenly stopping and looking struck with horror. John was startled as she suddenly put him back down and slithered away from him, burying her face in her hands. 

When John realized she was crying he called out to her, "Amipha? Amipha, what's wrong?" 

She didn't respond, and John ran up to her, "What happened? Calm down."

Still sobbing, she pushed him away when he got near her, nearly bowling him over with its force, but she probably didn't intend to be that forceful, "Amipha, come on, talk to me. Everything's alright."

"It's not alright ..." she finally said.

Determined, he walked back up to her and put a hand on the scales of her tail, "You can talk to me, Amipha."

"I- I almost-" she choked, "I was going to eat you ..."

John was more confused than alarmed, "I don't understand, why would you eat me?"

"W-when I picked you up, I just ... had this- this urge ..."

John thought for a moment, "You felt the instinctual urge to eat the prey you had caught," he said quietly, understanding. He would have to strike that method of attempting to practice avoiding predators.

He pinched his brow. This was not at all what he had intended, nor even considered could happen.

"I'm so sorry!" she sobbed at him.

"Hey, hey, it's alright. You didn't eat me and I know you wouldn't."

He calmed her down as best he could, both annoyed and sympathetic at the frequency of some sort of emotional breakdown from her, and guilty for unintentionally causing this.

"I- I'm just scared," her eyes still reddened, she brought her tail up and laid her face down on it, "I feel like I'm going to turn into- into _them_. Into some kind of monster."

He wanted to console her, but he also did not want to lie to her. What should he say? You'll never turn into a someone like them? Did he really know that? He had already underestimated the depth of her carnivorous instincts. He couldn't claim to truly know her or what she might turn into. He could only hope. Maybe travelling with someone this unstable wasn't such a good idea, but what other choice did he have?

He could only keep her on the right path as best he could.

"Hey," he got her attention and Amipha looked down at him, eyes filled with fear and uncertainty, "You're not a monster, and you never will be."

"But how do you know?"

"Because I know you Amipha. Everyone has instincts of some sort, not always beneficial. Part of growing up and living is learning to control yourself, and using your brain. There was no harm done. There's nothing to worry about."

Amipha sighed, wiping her eyes, "I'm sorry"

"It's ok," he smiled at her, "Why don't we continue towards the tree?"

"Oh, but what about Vanea?" she looked around them, as though hoping to find her hiding somewhere.

"She's used to tracking people. I have no doubt she'll be able to find us."

***

She did eventually meet up back with them, to Amipha's relief, and relayed information about the nearby area, even if half of it he didn't quite understand, always needing to stop her and ask what this or that species was.

He was only half-surprised to see she had already fashioned another bow as well as several arrows, tipped with arrowheads she kept with her for just such purposes. He thought about fashioning one himself, perhaps for hunting at least. He considered himself a marksman, but had never used a bow. So far the gun had been useful enough instead, but he knew he couldn't rely on it for much longer.

He rechecked the gun and its magazine. 3 bullets. He didn't know how or where he would use it, or even if it would continue to actually be useful, but he would keep the weapon he was familiar with until he couldn't any longer. Cleaning it was also an issue. He had figured out how to disassemble it, but with nothing other than his dirty shirt, there was little he could do. It would rust and become unusable after not too long. Especially in a humid, wet, and dirty environment he currently found himself in.

He continued cutting away at his wooden soon-to-be-tree as they walked through the jungle towards the much larger actual tree, now close enough that it occupied a significant portion of the sky, John realized Amipha had stopped, and was frowning in confusion.

"What is it?" He called to her.

"Wait, do you hear that?" Vanea interrupted.

He stopped moving and listened carefully. Distant but barely audible was some sort of cacophony, the likes of which he had never heard before.

"What is that sound?"

"There's a giant and a human over there, but ..." Amipha answered, almost absentmindedly.

"...but?"

"It's weird, I've never felt anything like them," she said, frowning further.

"It sounds like some sort of magic," Vanea said, listening intently. 

"Well, we should do something! Maybe she's trying to eat him!" Amipha suddenly exclaimed, filled with determination.

"Do what?" Vanea said from the trees, "It isn't our business to meddle in the affairs of everyone we come across, and more importantly, it's vastly more dangerous. Do you want a situation like that dridder to repeat itself?"

Amipha looked hesitant, "N-no, but we can't just do nothing! I'm going!" Amipha said adamantly and slithered off in the direction of the commotion.

"Amipha! Wait!" John yelled as he attempted to follow behind.

"Goddamnit," Vanea muttered as she followed as well.

After several minutes of running towards the ever-loudening sound he began to see bright colors flash against the foliage where the sounds were coming from. He saw Amipha from the back gaping at whatever it was, and when he finally came within line-of-sight he gaped too.

He saw what looked like an enormous flaming inferno in humanoid shape firing gouts of fire at what must be the man, though it was difficult to see him, as he was firing his own icy, bright white rays at the giant meeting the gouts of flame every time. He slid around on an icy bridge that constantly materialized in front of him, and when he got too close the humanoid inferno grabbed him right out of the air. 

It wasn't over yet, though as he launched out of its hand with a burst of ice and started to run up its arm towards its face, briefly extinguishing the flame as he went, revealing blackened skin underneath. It breathed inward sharply and blew of enormous blast of fire down its arm at the man, but he deftly jumped in the air to avoid it, again aided by his magic, and delivered a light kick in the air which froze its whole head in a comically large block of ice. This only lasted a moment as it yelled a distinctly feminine-sounding shout and shattered the block, sending wet fragments all around, by then however the man was back on the ground, having conjured a slide of ice at the last moment to ease his landing.

With another yell it braced itself and used both hands to fire and hold a continuous, focused ray of flame directly at him, which he again met with his own icy magic. The two held their opposing beams of magic at one another, neither yielding. The sound was deafening and the sight almost too bright to watch.

"RRRRRRGGGHHH!!" It grunted against gritted teeth as the icy ray slowly started to overtake its own, and it attempted to steel itself further.

Amipha seemed to break from the trance the fight had put her in and slithered forward urgently.

"WAIT! STOOOP!" She screamed over the sound.

All of a sudden both heads snapped to her and the intense cacophony went out immediately.

"Oh, hello," the man said anticlimactically, "Didn't realize we had an audience," 

The flames on the other had almost entirely settled down to reveal the figure of a woman with blackish greyish smoldering, mottled skin with the texture of dimly glowing coals. She had a round, mischievous face with bright red eyes and what looked like hair as well, in the form of darker black stalks coming down to about shoulder-length. Small flames constantly licked her body, very subdued compared to what she looked like just seconds ago.

"I'm sorry, was the noise bothering you?" she said apologetically.

Both were breathing fairly heavily, now that he could hear such things, but their violent demeanor had disappeared. He noted that despite all the fire, none of the trees or foliage seemed to have caught alight.

John walked forward, "What ...?"

Without the pyro- and cryotechnics and from a closer position he got a better look at the man as well. He was young, not older than 24, with short, white, faintly bluish hair. He had youthful features, with no beard, and no trace of stubble. He wore simple, light clothing, but was ornately designed with all sorts of blues and whites in intricate and gaudy designs, clearly not designed for stealth. When the man noticed him, he was suddenly struck with confusion.

"Oi, he yours?" he said and looked back to Amipha, "Can't let your food just wander around like that, he'll run off," He conjured up a chair and table made of ice, sat on the chair and lifted up his legs to rest on the table.

"He's not food!" she exclaimed, eyes flicking to the giantess as well.

"So he's your pet then?" The giantess inquired with some amusement.

"He's not my pet either!" she insisted, "He's my friend!"

"He's your 'friend' is he? Well aren't you a special little naga, making friends with humans," he mocked, looking back to the giantess who also looked incredulous.

"So, do you eat humans or not?" The man asked.

"No!" she said with growing irritation.

"Well, why not?" he asked, confused.

"Why doesn't she eat you?" John said, indicating to the giantess.

"Psshh, she wishes she could," he laughed.

"You'll mess up again sooner or later," the giantess said with a smirk.

"So, what are you two then?" John asked to both of them.

They looked at each briefly, before he turned back to John, "Bit of a nosey parker aren't we? Let me guess, you're a new arrival to Felarya? Of the non-consensual variety?"

"Something like that, yes."

He leaned back on his chair, balancing on its two back legs and scoffed, "Well, enjoy your short stay here, then." 

"Well you look like a very capable mage, perhaps we could accompany each other," John tried.

He scoffed again, "You daft, mate? I don't work for free. The going rate's 3,000 per day, per person. The big clumsy one counts too," he informed them, pointing towards Amipha with his gloved hand, which did not aid her irritation with the man.

"Well, could you at least give us some information of the area?"

He scoffed that stupid little scoff of his again, "Nah, I don't think so."

"What? Why?"

"Listen, mate, I've seen a lot of people like you, and let's face it, your odds aren't great. So, I've decided to spare myself the effort. And like I said, I don't work for free."

"So you just let every stranded person you see die?" he was not particularly upset he refused to come with them, but he didn't understand why he was receiving such a callous response.

He scoffed, "Some people have the sense to pay me, besides, if they don't, what's it to me, mate? You think I'm gonna stick my neck out for every prat that wanders into Felarya? Besides, the more people who die in Felarya the more profitable my work is."

John was stunned.

The man leaned forward, "Oi, here, I got some good advice for you. When you're going down be sure to wiggle a lot, they love that," he said, gesturing to Amipha.

John decked him in the face. But the man's jaw had already solidified into ice, and John's fist felt like it had hit a brick wall.

"Argh!" he cried and cradled his fist.

"Why are you so awful?!" Amipha cried down at him.

"Felarya's awful. You can either be awful too or come to a sticky end, literally," he scoffed to himself.

John turned and started walking away, "Come on," He said to Amipha without looking at her, "We're done here."

"If you're alive and got money, come find Glacius," the man yelled after John.

After he and the naga had left earshot, the Giantess spoke up.

"Come now, don't you think you were a little harsh?"

"Don't give me that shite. You would've gobbled him up in a second if that naga weren't there."

"That's not the point."

"Alright, mum, thanks for teaching me it's ok to eat people as long as you're polite," he mocked.

"Speaking of which, what about that naga?"

"What about her?"

"She said she didn't eat humans."

"So? She's probably just lying to get his trust and eat him later."

"She seemed serious. I'm curious about her," she said, looking towards where they went.

He looked at her dubiously, "What, you want to learn from her? You gonna go straight 'n' narrow on me now? 'Giant Man-Eater Fully Reformed, Apologizes to Own Poop For Having Eaten Them'," He said, gesturing in the air.

She started walking away, her thundering footsteps almost knocking him off-balance off his chair.

"Oi! You really gonna pal around with them?" 

When he didn't get an immediate response, he quickly scrambled up from his chair.

"Ey! Wait up!" he yelled after her.


	7. Nel

The giant naga stalked her prey. Carefully moving through the thick branches, the mid day sun peeked through the rare breaks in the foliage, glinting off of the golden scales on her tail. She observed her prey with her equally-golden eyes, a naga, like her. Most creatures did not hunt their own species, but it did happen, and for those who did it made catching their prey all that much easier.

He was on the forest floor, completely unaware of her presence, but he was feebly hiding by a tree so he may know he was being hunted. No matter. He would not get away.

He had short brown hair, a light build and a green tail with dark green designs running down its length. Perfect for camouflage, but it was too late to help him now.

She slowly crept through the branches, the gargantuan trees providing more than enough winding paths through their boughs for those with the ability and skill to traverse them. Curling her tail around the branches she lowered herself towards her prey. Leaning against the tree, but facing away from it, her prey could not see or hear her coming. Maneuvering into position just above him, she pounced, grabbing his head from behind.

"Got you!" she exclaimed triumphantly.

"Argh!" He cried and fell to the ground, taking her with him.

She was, of course, very young for a giant naga, only some 6 meters tall compared to the other adult giant naga, who was closer to 28 meters.

Both laughing, they wrestled each other on the ground, the adult naga grabbing his assailant from behind his head and retaliating with his own tickling. They tangled for a brief time until they settled down, both laying on the ground, the child laying in the crook of the elder's arm.

"That was great, Amipha. I barely even heard you coming."

"'Barely'? So you _did_ hear me coming!"

He laughed, "I suppose I did, but you did great anyway."

They lay there together for awhile simply enjoying cool afternoon breeze in shade of the colossal trees as they regained their breath. After a short while, he noticed something in the trees.

"Hey, Amipha."

"What?"

"Do you see that little guy over there?" he leaned in close to Amipha and pointed up in the branches some distance away.

"I don't-"

Amipha saw a small blotch of red move, and looked closer at what appeared to be a bird. It was hard to tell accurately at the distance, but it appeared to be a bird. It had bright red feathers, very long tail feathers, and what almost looked like antlers on its head.

"Whoa, what is it? What's it called?"

"I don't actually know. I've seen them several times, but I've never heard of a name for them. Why don't you come up with one?" he said, turning to Amipha.

"What?"

"Well, we're sort of discovering this kind of bird, so it'll need a name, why don't you come up with one?"

Amipha beamed, clearly excited at the prospect, "Really? What should I call it?"

"You can call it anything you want."

Amipha scrunched up her face in thought for a moment, "I'll call it birdy!"

He could only laugh in response

"Daddy! Don't make fun of my name!"

"I'm not, I like it. Birdy it is."

"Are they dangerous?"

"I don't think so."

"Are they tasty?"

"I don't know, I've certainly never managed to catch one. Most birds are hard to catch."

"I'm gonna try!"

Filled with determination, she got up and started to climb the tree. As she neared she slowed to a crawl  and always stayed hidden from its view to sneak up on it. Quite predictably however, the bird's keen senses tracked Amipha too well for her to hide from and merely hopped to other branches whenever she got close, before being spooked off entirely.

"Aww..."

"Don't worry I'm sure there will be more birdies."

"Wanna play hide and seek again?"

"Sure," he responded, long having adapted to her sudden changes of topic.

"This time I'm gonna hide!"

"Alright then, get ready, I'm going to come get you! One ... two ..."

Amipha quickly slithered away from her father. She was determined this time, he wouldn't find her. Both of them were definitely better at seeking than finding, but she was sure she could stump him this time. She would go really far away so there was no way he could find her.

As he had taught her, she made sure to remember the way back so as not to get lost and after some time of slithering off she prepared herself to hide and regained her breath. That is, until Amipha heard a rustle in the trees next to her. She turned and saw a neko in the tree nearby, tensed and staring at her, neither having noticed the other until now.

She knew what a neko was, of course. They were humanoid, usually just under 2 meters tall and had furry cat-like ears and tails. They looked fairly similar to humans, but acted quite differently. Unlike humans, they were much quieter and quicker to scamper away at signs of danger, and were definitely better at it. They also did not bring sometimes dangerous things with them as humans tended to. She knew they were for eating as well, like most creatures their size which were not dangerous or poisonous to eat.

This particular one appeared to be female, with brown hair, ears and tail and forest green eyes. It was wearing those strange wrappings covering their body she often saw humans and nekos with, wearing a brown and green vest, a short skirt, these strange little shoes and some sort of bag or satchel slung around her shoulder.

All of her actual interactions with nekos, however, had been few and far between. They were often from a distance, and would dart away as soon as her or her father's presence became known to them. She didn't give their behavior much thought, it seemed to be simply what animals did, though she did vaguely wish they would be more sociable. No doubt this one too, would scamper away in a moment.

After several seconds of staring at each other, however, Amipha was somewhat surprised to see the neko relax, and then sit down on the branch.

It seemed to smile, before speaking, "Hello."

She didn't know nekos could speak, though she wasn't entirely sure why she might have considered that they wouldn't. They looked similar to giant nagas above the waist, aside from size, so she supposed it wasn't too strange they could also speak like they could. She wondered how many other animals could speak, and why they didn't do so more often.

"My name's Nel. What's yours?" it spoke again.

Once she realized it was looking at her while it was speaking it occurred to her that it may be speaking to _her_. She had no idea how to converse with a neko. She could barely recall any instance where she spoke to anyone else without her father, either. Reflexively she looked back towards where her father was, and, predictably, he was not nearby to give her any sort of guidance.

She turned back uncertainly to the neko, who chuckled lightly.

"It's alright."

It felt strange, not only to talk to a stranger, but a neko as well.

"Uhh, h-hello..." she awkwardly said to her, "My name's Amipha."

The neko smiled at her response, "Nice to meet you, Amipha."

Amipha stared a moment longer. "Why are you talking to me?"

The neko was keen enough to sense a response from confusion rather than hostility.

"You seemed nice. Is this the first time you've talked to a neko?"

"Yeah, they usually just run away every time I see them."

"Well the forest can be a dangerous place. They were probably frightened."

"F-frightened? Am I scary?"

"I'm sure you know that big people eat nekos, but I don't think you're scary."

Amipha was quiet a moment, and frowned in thought, before Nel changed the subject.

"You live here, you said with your dad?"

Amipha perked back up, "Yeah! I really like my dad!"

"And your mom?"

"I never really knew my mom. She left when I was a lot younger."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Do you know why?"

Amipha seemed confused, "Well, daddy said she had to go, but that she really, really loved me."

She slithered up closer to Nel, "I wanna know about nekos!"

She laughed, both at her enthusiastic curiosity and her sudden change of subject, "What do you want to know?"

"What do you guys do?"

"I think we do a lot of similar things, we eat, drink, sleep, hunt, sometimes we play games ..."

"Games? I like playing games! What kind of games do you play?"

"It's been a long time since I've played any myself, but I'll try to see which I can remember that you can play too.”

The games she had showed her were simple games she had played before, like some sort of race or tag, but her partner for them was very different from her father. Not only the drastic difference in size, but Nel used the trees and branches to travel much more than they did. Despite her larger size which she had been expecting to give her a bigger advantage, Nel was extremely swift and was easily able to keep pace with her and even beat her, and it was much closer to a fair competition than her father usually was, since she could usually tell he was holding back in some ways for her benefit.

The brief time they had shared was incredibly enjoyable for her. Not an hour ago she could hardly imagine talking to a something like a neko, let alone playing with one. She made a mental note to try to engage other nekos, and maybe humans too, and who knows what else.

She had been so swept up that she was surprised to barely hear the distant voice of her father, “Amipha!”

Their race interrupted, she stopped and turned toward the voice. Nel, noticing she had stopped, stopped as well and went back to her, bounding across the branches.

"Was that your dad?"

"Yeah, I kind of forgot we were playing hide-and-seek. I should probably go back to him. It was a lot of fun playing with you, though!"

Nel laughed in response, "I had a lot of fun, too."

"Can I see you again?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure, I'd love to see you again some time."

"Wow! That's great! My very own neko friend!"

Nel laughed again at her response, "In the mean time, though, I don't think you should tell your dad about me."

Amipha looked crestfallen, "Ooh, why's that?"

"Let's just keep it our secret, okay?"

Amipha smiled and lowered her voice to a whisper, "Okay, we'll be secret friends!"

"Amipha!" she heard the distant voice again.

"Alright! Gotta go!"

"See you next time," The neko said and Amipha dropped back down to the ground and slithered back into the forest.

***

"Does it hurt?" Amipha's father asked.

"Y-yeah," a much taller Amipha admitted. Now at 23 meters tall, she came up to her father's shoulders.

"Don't worry, everyone goes through that. You'll have to be a big girl and tough it out, alright? Think of all the new things you can do," he said with a smile.

"I know! It's already way easier to climb around now, and some of those meaner animals don't bother me anymore."

"Soon I won't be able to give you piggyback rides," he laughed, "Also, since you're big enough maybe we'll get you some nekos or humans to eat too."

Amipha's enthusiasm seemed to dampen, and she grew quiet.

"Oh come on now, you know there's nothing to be nervous about"

"I-i know, sorry," she awkwardly smiled, "It's just ..."

"What? Are you afraid you won't be able to catch any without me? Trust me there are some really dumb humans out there."

Amipha giggled, "No it's not that, nevermind."

"Tell you what, next time we go hunting I'll try to give you some pointers on hunting nekos since I've mostly focused on animals before."

"Alright, thanks."

He suddenly had a faraway and distracted look in his eyes.

"Looks like we have a visitor."

"Is someone coming?" she had her own senses, but his were more well-honed and reached further than hers.

"Yeah, a giant too, looks like straight for us. Let's give them a friendly welcome, shall we?" he said to her with a smile. Amipha could tell, however it was slightly forced. Most other giant-sized beings were friendly, or at least indifferent to them, but they both knew some preyed on those of their size. With deciding to meet them, rather than hide, he was clearly hoping on the former.

After several short minutes, the being walked out into view. It was an adult giantess, red hair, tanned skin, and wore clothing in the form of a simple top and shorts, displaying modesty, something rather foreign to Amipha and most other giants.

Her father breathed a sigh of relief, "Fenne, good to see you again."

"You too, Daven. And you too, Amipha. you've certainly grown, haven't you?"

"Uhh, hi," she said awkwardly, out of obligation to respond to being spoken.

"I'll let you two catch up in a little bit," he said to them, "But, for now, do you mind if we talk alone for a little bit, Amipha?"

Amipha perked up, "No, sure that's fine. I'm sure you guys have a lot more to talk about anyway."

"Thanks," he told her and waited a bit for her to leave.

"So, it's been a little while, huh" he started.

"Yeah, I know, sorry about that ..."

"It's alright, you explained."

"I'll be around as often as before now. If that's alright, of course," she hastily added.

"Yeah, yeah, definitely, it's gotten a little lonelier without you around."

"So how have things been? Amipha's so much bigger now."

"I know! I can barely blink and she's nearly as big as me!"

"You haven't had any trouble raising her? I know how things could be more difficult, you know, being a single father and all."

He grunted and nodded in assent and a brief silence fell between them.

"Have you ... seen her recently?"

"No."

"Do you miss her?"

He moistened his lips, sighed and looked away.

"Sorry, I don't mean to pry."

"No, it's alright," he looked back to her and shrugged, "Of course I do."

"Do you wish she were still here, raising Amipha with you?"

He leaned back against a tree. "No. We had our reasons for ... going our separate ways, and Amipha was a large part of it, you know that."

She nodded slowly. "Alright, I just don't want to see you, you know, ... dwelling on her, on what happened."

He eyed her warily. "Isn't that a bit of a stretch? What makes you think I'm "dwelling" on her?"

"Oh come on, you soon as I mention her you get all terse on me. It's not a huge mystery."

"I don't like talking about it, what more is there?"

She stepped closer to him, "It's the things that hurt most that need to be talked about it. It can help to, you know, get it off your chest."

He closed his eyes. "Please stop. I'm glad you're back, but I really just don't want to deal with this again."

"You haven't changed at all. I was hoping you would've gotten over this by now."

"There's nothing to 'get over'."

"If that were true this wouldn't bother you so much."

He looked back at her with a frown. "What do you want from me?"

She stepped up to him and put her hands on his shoulders, "I just want to let you know that you aren't alone."

"I'm _not_ alone."

"You know what I mean. I don't mean like Amipha," she said, looking into his eyes.

He sighed and grabbed her hands by the wrists and pulled them down. "Listen, I appreciate it, I really do. But ... I'm not-"

"Yeah, I know."

"I think," he began slowly, "That I'll get over it quicker if you don't push me quite so hard."

Her voice softened, "You know I do this because I care about you."

He smiled, "I know, I ... appreciate it."

A light, and only a little bit awkward silence hung between them for a moment.

"Anyway," he said, "How have things been for you?"

***

Not at all unhappy to get a chance to avoid Fenne, Amipha decided she would visit her and Nel's mutually agreed on meeting spot. It was a fair distance outside of how far Daven's senses could reach, and as far as she knew he had never been there. Allowing her the independence to go beyond his senses and avoid feeling like she was joined at the hip with him all the time was a tough struggle. Once she got old enough he had relented, if only for a short amount of time, any longer than an hour and he would start to get antsy.

The particular spot they used was a somewhat rare tree, enormous like many of the others in Felarya and was many times taller than adult giant predator, but had slightly bluer leaves than usual, stood somewhat straighter, and had these nice, little white flowers over it. It was a species Nel had shown her, rather than Daven, and called them 'Starry Trees', apparently because the flowers had the odd ability to unnaturally maintain their whiteness even during the night making the tree look like an extension of the night sky. She had never seen this effect, though she wanted to.

Nel was usually not at the tree, not that she minded, though she usually came hoping to see her. It was a relaxing place to spend some time alone, and away from the smothering from Daven, though thinking about it, she wasn't sure the smothering from Nel was much better. She hadn't seen her recently, and she was excited to show Nel how much bigger she had gotten. Though Amipha had no basis of comparison to know it might not be usual, most giant predators grew to their full size in a relatively short amount of time.

As she neared the spot, she felt Nel's presence, or at least the presence of a single humanoid and she quickened her pace.

When she reached the familiar tree, she didn't immediately see Nel, which probably wasn't difficult for her, If she didn't want to be.

"Nel?" she called out.

After several seconds of silence she heard Nel's voice from the base of the tree, giving her a start as it usually did, despite that she had been expecting it.

"Wow, look at you!"

She looked down at her, having apparently been in the tree's winding gnarled roots.

"I know! It's so exciting!"

"I know you guys get big pretty quick, but it felt like you were only half the size last time we met."

"I know, here, look how high I can reach!" she exclaimed and picked Nel up, hoisting her up as high as her arms could reach.

"Whoa! Careful, remember what I said about picking up littles like me without their permission first."

"Oh right, s-sorry."

Nel had truthfully been much higher in her life, and had done so enough to no longer really feel vertigo, but now that Amipha was pretty much the size of an adult now, a fall from this height would undoubtedly kill, she thought, looking down from Amipha's hand. A bit morbid of a thought, but a good measure of how high up she was.

"You're growing up," she said with a smile.

She lowered Nel down to chest level, "No one told me growing up would be so _painful_ , either." she said with a grimace.

Looking at Nel in front of her, though, her cheerfulness faded, and her expressions turned troubled. She chewed her lip nervously, "So, uh, I guess I _am_ big enough to eat you now, huh?"

Nel didn't respond, as Amipha continued to grapple with her thoughts, "It's what _Dad_ would want me to do."

"Is it what you want to do?"

Amipha hesitated a moment longer before placing Nel back down on the ground, "Of course not. How could you even ask me that?"

"What about other nekos? Others who you aren't attached to like me."

Sighing, Amipha fell backward lied on her back, shaking the ground with the impact, "Urggh why does everything have to be so complicated? I mean it's not like it's ... wrong or anything, right?"

Nel chuckled, "I think that depends a lot on who you ask."

"Well, what does _that_ mean?"

"Most other giant predators will probably tell you there's nothing wrong at all with it. And lots of humans who come here will say the opposite. I think those in the jungle will say it isn't wrong, even nekos or elves, who might also add that they prefer if you didn't." Nel walked down her length and sat next to her.

"So, who's right?"

Nel laughed, "If we all knew it wouldn't be much of a question, now would it?"

"Uggh," she groaned, writhing on the forest floor, "Why can't you just tell me what to do?"

"I ... don't think it's right to influence someone like that, to just _tell_ them what to do."

"But that's exactly what Dad's doing!"

"It's different for him. He has a responsibility to you. He's your parent, I'm not."

"I _wish_ you were."

"Don't- don't say that. He does a lot for you, whether you realize it or not."

"How would _you_ know?" she said defensively.

"I know what it means to be a parent. I'm pretty sure you have a good one."

"So you think he's right, then? I should just suck it up and quit worrying over this?"

"I think, you shouldn't look to others so much for an answer here. This is something you'll need to figure out by yourself."

"It's just, everyone's pressuring me to make a decision, and no matter what I do I'm going to be hurting someone."

Amipha pushed her hands into her face and whimpered, "I don't wanna talk about this anymore."

"It's ok, we don't have to. Is there something else you wanted to talk about?"

" _Fenne_ is back," she said with distaste.

Nel sighed, "I don't understand why you dislike her so much."

"She's just so ugh. She's always, like, in Dad's face. She's so weird."

"I think she just wants to keep him company, your dad doesn't really have contact with a lot of people does he?"

"W-what's wrong with me?"

"Nothing's wrong with you, but he may just want friends his own age."

"Yeah, well, I think she likes him, you know, _that way_." she said with a grimace.

"Would there be anything wrong with that?"

Amipha looked at Nel, shocked, "Ew!"

"Your dad is a perfectly capable adult, if that's the sort of thing he wants, then I think you should be supportive of him."

"She's just so pushy and touchy-feely with him. I don't like her.

"I'm sure he appreciates you looking after him, but just like you don't like it when he smothers you, I doubt he'd like you smothering him, and judging everyone who he spends time with."

_Whatever. I still don't like her._

Every time she felt like venting her frustration about something or someone Nel always had this habit of explaining everything away and making it seem like she was the one being silly. She could hardly ever form a coherent rebuttal. It was usually more a comfort than not, whenever she was worrying about something Nel could always ease her, and let her know things would be alright. She was usually right, much as it begrudged her to admit at times like these.

Still lying on the ground, she turned her head to the side and looked at Nel with a pout. She had a content smile and her tail swished lazily, as though she expected this reaction from her. Despite knowing her for so long many of her physical mannerisms still fascinated her. They both had tails, but she also had those leg-things humans used, making her wonder what the point of her tail was, if not for getting around. Or her cat ears, swiveling independently of each other, pointing towards sounds nearby.

Amipha did sort of consider her her mother, even if she denied it. She had certainly done more for her than her actual mother did, and had taught her all sorts of things, just like her dad did, even if she couldn't see her nearly as often. Nel was also apparently rather old and had been on many exciting adventures which she would never tire of hearing about. Ancient temples, vast deserts, freezing tundras, the world was clearly much larger and more diverse than she had previously imagined. Nel had, of course, shot down any suggestion for her to take her to some of those places, or really anywhere not near her home.

'Maybe when you're older,' she had said, 'I wouldn't take you from your father like that.'

Something she was still curious was that satchel she always carried around. She had assumed she would tell her herself eventually but maybe it needed some prodding.

"Hey."

She looked back to her, "Mm?"

"You've never told me about that bag, you know."

Nel looked down at it and re-situated it, as though she had forgotten she was still wearing it, "I suppose not. Maybe someday I will, but not today."

Of course, for everything Nel had told her, she knew there were ten more she avoided telling her.

***

"Come on now, say 'Ahh'," Daven said.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" the man dangling from his finger tips screamed.

"Hush, you."

"Dad! I'm not a baby!" Amipha yelled, "And even if I was I still don't want to eat him!"

"I don't understand, why?"

"I've already told you! I just ... don't want to, is all. Why won't you just accept what I've decided?"

"Amipha, you're being ridiculous. Can you please stop this- this whatever you're doing?"

"P-please do not stop doing this," the man said to Amipha.

"Quiet, you're not helping," he said back to him.

"No! I don't want to and I'm not going to!" Amipha folded her arms.

Daven sighed and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. He dropped the man on the ground, who didn't question his luck and immediately darted away.

"What about a duiker? Will you still eat those?"

Amipha hesitated, "N-no! No animals either."

"And how long are you planning on keeping this up?"

"Forever!"

"Amipha," he said, and Amipha could feel the incoming reproach, "You said it yourself. You aren't a child. You're past the age when you should be throwing tantrums about not liking certain kinds of food."

"E-exactly! I'm an adult now, which means I can make my own decisions!"

Daven floundered, honestly unsure of how to deal with an issue he had honestly not considered would need dealing with. He assumed this strange phase was something that would pass quickly, but it was beginning to get worrisome. All the other children he knew had little issue with eating animals and humans, and were even excited to start doing so. He knew everyone was different and that he did not control every aspect of who she would become, but he couldn't shake the nagging feeling he had done something wrong, given her some wrong idea somehow and inadvertently caused this.

He shook his head, "Is there something bothering you? Do you want to talk about it? There is _nothing_ wrong with eating humans or animals."

"B-but it's mean to them."

Daven grasped her shoulders and looked seriously into her eyes, "If you refuse to eat them, what then? You know they're going to just get eaten by something else. Nothing really changes, except now you're worse off because of it. We can't always be nice to everyone. If you try all you'll accomplish is hurting yourself. It's a part of life."

Amipha fidgeted nervously.

"I'm not saying you should do mean things. It's ... good to be nice to things. But you also have to look after yourself."

"Couldn't I just eat, like, fruit and stuff?"

"The forest won't always be kind to you. There won't always be enough, it'll be rotten, or someone or something else might've gotten to it first. When you grow up, and you're out there ... alone," It hurt to think about, let alone her also avoiding all meat, "It might be harder than you think. You can't always afford to ignore food. Not to mention I know it isn't healthy. You have to maintain a balanced diet."

Amipha shrunk away from him, and got more flustered the more he went on, desperately searching for a rebuttal she couldn't put together. Why was she so being so affected by this? He honestly couldn't understand why she seemed so invested in this.

"B-but it's wrong..." she whimpered.

He raked his fingers through his hair, "Why do you keep-"

Daven was struck with an epiphany.

"Amipha..." he began, warily, "Have you been talking to humans?"

"W-what? N-no!" she blurted what was technically not a lie.

He gripped her by the shoulders, "Amipha, this is very important; you're young, they'll say things that will confuse you. Who did you talk to? Where were they?" He shouldn't have let her go out alone so often.

Amipha wrestled free of him, "No! I won't tell you!" she desperately yelled and started slithering away.

"Amipha, wait!" He called after her and began to chase her as well, but stopped and watched her vanish among the trees.

 _Maybe she just needs some time alone. Why did I go so overboard on her?_ He berated himself. _I shouldn't have been so aggressive. What if I drove her away for good? No, I'm sure she'll be back. Maybe she'll be feeling better then. I've got to approach this much more delicately. Why am I so stupid? I should've known this would happen. Why did I just let her go? Maybe I should go after her. No, she probably just wants to be alone right now. Rrrgh! I screwed everything up!_

He could only hope this was some passing thing she would get over.

***

Amipha slithered as quickly as she could through the forest, only half-conscious of the fact she was heading towards her and Nel's tree. Tears pricked at her eyes, threatening to overwhelm her. The "talk" she knew would come eventually felt more like an assault, and she felt awful. And then there was the unexpected mention of whether she was talking to humans made her deathly afraid he might find out about Nel. She need to see her now, more than anything.

She arrived at their tree, too tired and worked up to even use her senses properly to know whether she was there or not.

Breathlessly, she called out in a hoarse voice, "Nel? Nel?!" Please _be here_.

There was a rustling in the tree and showed herself on a chest-level branch, "Amipha? What's wrong?"

"Oh, Nel, thank goodness you're here!" She felt like picking her up and holding her close, but she was too worked up and flustered and was she might drop her or hurt her.

"Sshh, It's okay, I'm here. Tell me what's wrong," she said soothingly.

"I couldn't- He just- He brought another human to me, b-but he just-"

"Relax, Amipha, everything's going to be alright."

Rare though it was, it was one of those few occasions she felt that Nel was lying to her.

"He brought another human to me, just now! But this time he didn't just go along with it ."

"You got in an argument about it?"

"Yeah, and he was just- he made me feel like I'm an idiot," she said, hopeless, "Like it's so obvious we need to eat humans and I just don't get it because I'm this dumb, sheltered girl! And then he asked if I'd been talking to any humans and I was so scared he might find out about you."

"Ssh, it's okay, come here," Nel motioned towards herself, and Amipha held out her hand next to her, and Nel hugged one of her fingers, "Come on now, you know you aren't dumb."

"But that's what scares me most. I think he might be right. Maybe I'm just over-thinking everything. H-he said I couldn't live in the forest without eating humans or anything, and that it wasn't healthy. Was this a bad idea?"

Nel sighed, "I think this is something you need to figure for yourself."

"Rrrgh! Quit saying that! It's always 'You need to figure this out by yourself' or 'I shouldn't influence you' or 'It's not my place to say'! Why can't you just _help_ me for once, when I'm begging you to?! I need you now more now than anything!"

Nel was surprised, but also sympathetic at Amipha's outburst, "You said that your dad was afraid you'd been talking to humans? That they might try to convince you or end up confusing you, right?"

"W-well yeah, but you're not like that at all!"

"He is right, though."

"W-what?"

"He's right, humans will, if given the opportunity, try to convince you that eating humans is wrong, or immoral, or unethical. Nekos, too, will do this. Most people that are human-sized."

"I-i don't understand..."

"They aren't necessarily wrong, but I don't want to be that kind of person. The person he's afraid that I might be.

What they say comes from self-preservation. They don't want to be eaten, so they'll try to tell you that it's wrong so that, hopefully, you don't eat them. It's why they rarely extend the same courtesy to animals, or neeras. They aren't animals or neeras and ultimately don't care what happens to them because they aren't them, and what happens to them doesn't affect them. And if you try to say that eating animals or neeras is also wrong, they'll often disagree, because _they_ eat them.

It's why I'm sort of happy you've decided not to eat animals as well. Your reasoning comes from yourself, rather than me, or someone who just doesn't want to be eaten themselves. Your empathy extends to those aren't able to _say_ that they don't want to be eaten."

Nel looked back at Amipha, her eyes having drifted away, to see Amipha looking at her with uncertainty.

Nel smiled awkwardly, "Sorry if that was a bit confusing, but I hope it cleared some things up."

"I-i think so. I'm just not sure what to say to dad."

"If you truly think what you're doing is right, you shouldn't compromise on it. He'll resist, because he thinks it will make your life harder, which..." she scratched the back of her head, "...it probably will, I won't lie to you. You'll need to work harder to find things to eat, and to stay as healthy as before."

"Alright, I can do it."

Nel and Amipha talked for some time, on how to deal with her dad, on more on how to survive on a no-meat diet. The stress from the day starting to wear off, Amipha took a nap at the tree, as she had done many times before. This time though, she was awoken by a harsh whisper from Nel.

"Amipha!"

"Mmm?" she groaned.

"Someone's coming!"

"Huh, what?" Amipha rubbed her eyes, and regained her senses, including the sense that told her a giant-sized being was nearby, _very_ nearby. Amipha could hear it was just about to step into view. Panicking, she quickly grabbed Nel protectively, and Amipha was surprised to see Fenne.

"Amipha? What are you doing out here?"

"N-nothing!" she shrunk away from Fenne reflexively keeping her hands away from her. Nel took off and dropped her satchel, but Amipha was too distracted to notice.

"What is that you've got in your hands?" Fenne stepped closer to Amipha and she backed into the tree.

"G-go away!"

"Is- is that a neko?"

She held Nel close to her chest and turned to her side, "I said go away!"

"Amipha, you're being ridiculous. You need to stop this."

"This doesn't involve you! You aren't my mom."

"Do you realize how much stress you're causing for your father?"

"I-i don't care! I made my decision, he's the one who keeps pushing against me."

"How can you be so insensitive? Look, it's simple, you can just eat that neko there," she said indicating to Nel.

"No!" she screamed, shocked by the suggestion.

"Why are you getting so worked up over some neko?" she sighed and rolled her eyes, "Just give it to me."

She closed the short distance in a step before she realized what Fenne was attempting, and suddenly found herself struggling against Fenne as she tried to get at Nel. Fenne was a full-grown adult and was taller, stronger and had a longer reach than her. It was horrifyingly quickly that Amipha was forced to relent against Fenne's invading fingers, afraid that gripping too tightly would hurt Nel, and Fenne succeeded in wresting her from Amipha.

As she kept Nel away from Amipha with one hand and restrained her from further attempts to get her back with the other she told her, "Now I'll give it back to you, but only on the condition that you eat it."

Amipha couldn't believe this was happening, "No! I told you, no!"

"Amipha, why are you making this so hard? We've tried to be patient with you, but this is taking it too far."

"Stop talking like you're my mom! Dad doesn't even like you!"

Fenne ignored her, "We're trying to help you, here. Don't you see that? This isn't normal, it's not healthy. I'm not trying to be mean to you, but this has got to end."

"Shut up! I don't want to talk to you! Give her back!"

"Why do you have to be so stubborn? Fine then, have it your way."

Helpless to stop her, Fenne put Nel in her mouth, able to give little more than startled yelp in response, and swallowed a moment later.

"There, that's how an _adult_ eats her food," she said afterward, but Amipha was too dumbstruck to respond in any coherent manner.

"Wha- You- _S-spit her out_!!" she cried, redoubling her struggling.

"Well, I wasn't about to let it go to waste, if you were just planning on throwing a tantrum over it."

" _I can't believe you did that! You're horrible! I hate you!!_ " she screamed, whaling on Fenne with untempered emotion.

"What has gotten into you?" Fenne said, struck by her sudden unexpected fierceness.

Amipha continued to wail, cry, and scream unintelligibly at an increasingly flustered and confused Fenne.

"It was just a neko, why are you-"

Daven suddenly burst out of the trees, and turned on the pair, "What did you do to her?!"

"Nothing! She just went crazy!"

"Amipha, sweetie, come here," he quickly went up to his daughter, currently wracked with sobbing, and tried his best to soothe her, leading her back to their home. Amipha barely noticed his presence, or where she was being lead, nothing seemed to matter anywhere, she felt the floor had dropped out beneath her, half of her life ripped out of her body. She had no thoughts, but an endless flow of tears and disbelief of how everything had gone so wrong so quickly.

Before she left the tree entirely, she caught one glance at Nel's tiny little satchel, still lying at the base of the tree.

***

"Amipha!"

Amipha jolted awake, and was greeted with the quiet darkness of the forest at night. A soft breeze rolled through, but nothing otherwise seemed to be amiss. Looking lower, though, she could see a small human figure in front of her, John, no doubt.

"John, what is it?"

"Are you alright? It sounded like you were crying."

She became aware of the sensation of her reddened eyes, and reached up to feel the wetness of freshly-shed tears. She quickly rubbed her eyes dry.

"Uh, sorry, I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's alright, you can go back to sleep."

As John walked away to do so, Amipha laid back down and tried to go to back to, hopefully less tumultuous, sleep. Reflexively, she brought her hand up to feel the left side of her head and was relieved to feel the small bump just hidden under her hair, still there.

**Author's Note:**

> Felarya was created by [Karbo](http://karbo.deviantart.com).


End file.
